Thread: Indian team tracks load of 3.5 tons of pot

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/163929

Tucson Region
Indian team tracks load of 3.5 tons of pot
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.10.2007

An elite group of American Indian drug trackers appear to be comfortable in their new assignment working Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Less than three months since the Shadow Wolves were reassigned to ICE from the U.S. Border Patrol, agents found 3 1/2 tons of marijuana on the northern part of the Tohono O'odham Nation, said Lauren Mack, ICE spokeswoman.

Last Friday at about 5 a.m., the Shadow Wolves trackers began following the tire tracks of several pickup trucks on a back road near Ventana village on the reservation, Mack said. They followed the tracks off the dirt roads and onto to Federal Route 42, where at about 11 a.m. the agents found three pickup trucks covered in camouflage tarp out of view, she said.

The 7,200 pounds of marijuana they found inside the trucks has an estimated street value of $3.6 million, using figures from the Arizona High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, the federal anti-drug analysis and intelligence center.

It is the largest seizure for the Shadow Wolves since they were reassigned to Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 15. Since then, they have have seized 22,723 pounds of marijuana, Mack said.

The Shadow Wolves, an elite group of American Indian drug trackers, combine traditional tracking skills with modern police techniques to thwart drug and human smugglers. They were transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after lawmakers complained that the unit was not being used effectively by the Homeland Security Department.

Based on the Tohono O'odham Indian reservation on Arizona's border with Mexico, the Shadow Wolves were part of the U.S. Customs Service until 2003, when they were reassigned to the Border Patrol.

They are doing a great job and I hope they continue to do so. It is sad to think that those who all the land here once belonged to now have to fight to keep it from drug running illegals and others from Mexico who think that it was theirs.

Wish we could hire them to find all the things Bush has lost

Originally Posted by redbadger

Wish we could hire them to find all the things Bush has lost

I don't believe they are trained to track down a lost mind.

MountainDog: It would be hard to find sonmething that was never there in the first place.