Meet the Shadow Wolves, an elite drug tracking force that scours the Arizon/Mexico border for contraband.

The Wolves are the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s only Native American tracking unit and use traditional tracking methods to find illegal drugs and drug runners, reports Nick Allen of the Daily Telelgraph.

One member is Jason Garcia (Tohono O’odham).

He and eight other Shadow Wolves operate in the Tohono O’odham Nation, a vast Indian reservation roughly the size of Northern Ireland. The O’odham have inhabited the area for thousands of years and their name translates as “Desert People.”. Some 20,000 of them now live in scattered villages.

. . .

The tracking technique they use is known as “cutting for sign” and is taught from childhood. Mr Garcia says: “This takes a lot of patience. You’re looking for something that’s almost invisible.

Initially it can be something minute. But it’s the thrill of the hunt. I’m looking for bad guys that don’t want to be found.”

Bending to his knees to study his latest find he can tell that the quarry passed by only minutes before in an SUV, probably a Chevrolet, heading directly north towards Phoenix 100 miles away.
Jumping into his own pickup truck he then plunges into the undergrowth, bouncing wildly through the cacti, and down a dry rutted riverbed, following signs invisible to the untrained eye.

Unlike his ancestors he is armed with an M-4 rifle and a semi-automatic pistol.

View a short slideshow of the Shadow Wolves at work.

Jenna Cederberg

Tags: Arizona, daily telegraph, department of homeland security, desert people, illegal drugs, jason garcia, mexico border, shadow wolves, Tohono O'odham