LOS ANGELES -- They are the only customs unit that uses ancient American Indian tracking skills to hunt down drug smugglers.
NBC4 accompanied the team on a raid where they uncovered drug-runners hiding in a stash house. They carried their 200-pound load of dope in backpacks across the Mexican border right into Arizona's Tohono O'odham reservation.The area where the reservation lies is a land of fiery skies and Sawaro cactus and it's the ancient secrets passed down through Indian tribes that makes these drug busts possible.
The U.S. Customs Police on the reservation are all Native Americans who call themselves Shadow Wolves. They track smugglers as they trek across a treacherous stretch of desert. How do they do it?
Officer Bob Antone, from the Tohono O'ohdam tribe, relies on tribal tracking skills. He scours the ground for fresh tracks or the faint impression of carpet, which smugglers attach to their shoes to hide footprints.
A broken branch that's already dried out is a sign to him that drug-runners came through a while ago. "They've got their packs on, and they'd be coming through like this, brushing onto here," said Antone. He also finds another sign: fibers from burlap sacks that cling to branches.
All 21 U.S. Customs officers learned these ancient secrets from their elders.
"I had done some tracking with my dad out hunting," said Antone.
But these tribal members no longer hunt animals -- now, the hunt drug-runners.
A village known as Cowlick, about 20 miles or so from the Mexican border, seems quiet and peaceful, but in reality it's home to several known stash houses.
The Shadow Wolves seize an average of 1,000 pounds of dope each week -- and that's not all.
Bryan Nez, a Navaho Indian, says since Sept. 11, the Shadow Wolves also look for terrorists.
"We had a couple of officers find some foot signs. Right up at the load-up area he found the passports of Middle Eastern origin," said Nez.
A fence at the border between Mexico and the reservation acts as a minor obstacle to individuals trying to get across the borders.
"See this one, it looks like the Mexican army," said Nez as he pointed out another foot sign.
Officer Jason Garcia told NBC4 that there is some suspicion that the Mexican army is actually working with the drug smugglers.
When asked if he is wary when he spots the Mexican military along the border, Garcia said he was worried they might "shoot at us, or who knows what they are going to do."
Another secret the Shadow Wolves shared with NBC4 when examining foot signs was what the presence of animal tracks over foot impressions means.
"These footprints are from earlier. (They are) older, because desert creatures have had time to run over them," explained one officer.
When officers happen onto a trail that looks fresh and it looks promising, they then resort to some high-tech equipment like night-vision goggles.
The Shadow Wolves carry their heritage and find their prey -- load by load. Responsible for a third of the customs service seizures in all of Arizona, they continue to be the only unit of their kind