By PAUL BEDARD • 6/26/16 12:02 PM

Mexican drug lords have stayed ahead of snooping cops thanks to a $2 phone app that allows them to hear police radio traffic, according to a top Arizona sheriff leading the war on drugs and illegal immigration.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu told Secrets that scouts assigned to look out for police as drug shipments head north have been arrested with the apps open.

Babeu said that the scouts, illegally in the U.S., are also equipped with militarized binoculars, encrypted radios and solar panels to keep their electronics powered for 20-30 days at a time.

"My deputies don't even have encrypted radios," said Babeu, running for the open House seat in Tucson and in Washington for an immigration conference.

"They are specifically designed as counterintelligence for us, law enforcement," he said of the drug scouts in his and other border counties who receive $100 for each safe passage of a load of drugs. "People think I'm talking about Afghanistan, but this is my country."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ar...rticle/2594945