Exclusive: Tracking Smugglers In Ariz. Desert

POSTED: 5:12 pm MST October 29, 2010
UPDATED: 10:15 pm MST November 1, 2010

PINAL COUNTY, Ariz. -- We got only a quick warning to hold on. And then we were off.

The Pinal County Sheriff's Office gave the CBS 5 Investigative crew exclusive access to a three-day, multi-agency operation to track smugglers.

The war between smugglers and Pinal County Sheriff's deputies is ongoing. It is fought in the dark. And the battlefield is an unforgiving stretch of desert less than 50 miles from Phoenix.

During the operation, we sped through a desolate stretch of desert. There are no roads out there -- only miles and miles of unforgiving, rough desert.

"I'm just going to see if I can get their dust," said Pinal County Sheriff's deputy Jeff Love. "All right they're still southbound."

At one point, we followed three vehicles that were likely filled with members of the Mexican Drug Cartel.

"I don't want to turn my lights on because they were running blacked out, you know what I mean?" Love asked.

The vehicles we chased had their lights out and so did we. Night vision goggles allowed Love to careen through the rugged desert, carving out his own roads.

A gut feeling forced deputies to slow down their pursuit.

Love's police radio crackled and another deputy warned us that one of the vehicles was coming straight for us.

The SUV continued to drive closer to us without slowing down. Deputy Love flipped on the flashing red and blue lights, fearing the vehicle would hit us. We waited. And at the last minute, the car swerved off to the side, narrowly missing us.

The radio went crazy as deputies scrambled to call out directions of the speeding vehicle. But this one got away.

For the next two hours we chased a ghost, following dust trails that evaporated before our eyes and tire tracks that led nowhere. But as the sun peaked through the mountains, deputies got lucky. They found an SUV and a truck. Both were empty.

Which meant those people were likely still out here, hiding, maybe watching us.

Inside the SUV deputies found a woman's wallet with $700 in cash. A half-full baby bottle was found in the center console.

Love then spotted something stashed in some bushes -- 10 packs of marijuana, each bundle about 50 pounds.

As the deputies loaded up the bundles of pot, they spotted something unique. There was a hole in one of the bundles. Deputies speculated that it is where someone pulled out a GPS tracking device.

Just in the last year, drug cartels have started planting tracking devices in their drug shipments - to make sure they arrive at the location.

"That way they'll know when their product has made it to the destination and also if their dope is ripped off somewhere in between and they can take enforcement actions," said Love. "Their product, they've got to get it to where they're going. And they'll use any means they have to."

With Slideshow
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