• QSHADOW_P1
• csmli-1
• stem-1

• QSHADOW_P2
• csmli-2
• stem-2

'Shadow Wolves' track drug smugglers the native American way

An elite team hunts drug traffickers in the Southwest using generations-old techniques.

from the July 5, 2007 edition

Page 3 of 3

Page 1 | Page 2 | 3

The Shadow Wolves haven't been involved in any violent confrontations. Mainly it's a "friendly man's game," Ortega says. But it is becoming more dangerous. In fact, drug cartels in Mexico know how effective the Shadow Wolves have become and have issued death threats against them. But because of the remoteness of this area, and the money involved, they continue to send contraband across the reservation.

Many of the vehicles the Shadow Wolves find abandoned on tribal lands are equipped with snap-on tarps to hide them from aircraft, cut-off switches for the lights, and night-vision equipment. The smugglers are frequently armed with military-style automatic weapons.

The Shadow Wolves are finding on average 250 SUVs per month, vehicles that have been stolen in the Phoenix area and used to pick up the drugs that have been stashed throughout the reservation. They're often hidden in the houses of tribal members, and the smugglers increasingly pay young people here to work as guides.

Most of the smugglers the Shadow Wolves catch are bit players in the drug trade – "mules" hired by the cartels to ferry the contraband across the reservation. Still, five ICE agents are assigned to work with the Shadow Wolves, and take over the investigations after an apprehension has been made. "They try to take it to the next tier of the organization with the ultimate goal to dismantle the network," says Ortega.

Then, for the native American trackers, it's back to another set of footprints, in hopes of fulfilling their official motto: In brightest Day, In Darkest Night, No Evil Shall Escape My Sight, For I am the Shadow Wolves.

1 | 2 | Page 3