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Border Patrol agents intercept drug smugglers on horseback
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.07.2007

A trio of drug smugglers tried to sneak their loads past Border Patrol agents early Wednesday morning using old-fashioned horsepower.
Unlike many who transport the drug loads in four-wheel drive pickup trucks, these three men loaded their bundles of marijuana on horses, said Gustavo Soto, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
At about 5:45 a.m., agents went to the Kino Springs area about 10 miles east of Nogales after a night camera operator spotted three horses carrying bundles north, he said. Agents encountered three men on horseback about one quarter north of the border.
One man cut the loads from the horse and rode back into Mexico. The other two jumped off the horses and fled by foot. Agents recovered 22 bundles of marijuana weighing 527 pounds and seized the two horses, Soto said. They didn't arrest any of the riders, he said.
The two horses were turned over to a contracted officer who will quarantine them to make sure they carry no diseases, Soto said. If they meet Border Patrol requirements, they could become property of the agency, which has a horse patrol unit.
Smuggling drugs on horseback isn't unusual or new, but is far less common than the two most common methods -- sending the loads in backpacks carried by drug runners who walk for days or driving it north in vehicles, Soto said. Horses move faster than humans and make less noise than cars, and are often used in remote areas, including mountains, he said.
The 529 pounds of marijuana -- which has an estimated value of $529,000, according to figures from the National Drug Intelligence Center -- is a fairly average seizure in the Tucson Sector, the busiest along the southern border for drug seizures.
From Oct. 1 through Jan. 31, agents have seized 299,154 pounds of marijuana, more than 2,400 pounds a day. The totals represent a 31 percent increase from the same time period in fiscal year 2006, when the pounds of marijuana seized shattered previous records.