Shadow Wolves - Key Facts

Key Facts

• The Shadow Wolves methodical approach has enabled them to track and apprehend smugglers in parts of the Southwestern U.S. across arduous desert terrain and rugged mountainous areas where tracks left by smugglers may be no more than an overturned pebble or an almost indistinguishable impression in the sand.
• An experienced Shadow Wolf can spot small items snagged on branches, twigs bent or broken, or even a single fiber of cloth or burlap from a sack or bag that could be filled with drugs. They can read faint footprints in the dust and determine when they were made, where they came from and whether or not traffickers are carrying additional weight such as backpacks filled with drugs.
• The Shadow Wolves are the Department of Homeland Security’s only Native American tracking unit.
• The Tohono O’odham Nation, patrolled by the Shadow Wolves, covers 2,800,000 acres (11,000 km2) and is mainly made up of small, scattered villages.
• The current unit consists of 15 Native American Patrol Officers representing 9 Native American tribes, (Tohono O’odham, Navajo, Kiowa, Sioux, Blackfeet, Yurok, Omaha, Yaqui and Pima) who employ traditional tracking skills combined with modern law enforcement technology to enforce immigration and customs laws on the 76-mile (122 km) stretch of land the Tohono O’odham Nation shares with Mexico.
• The unit was transferred back to ICE from CBP’s Border Patrol in October 2006 and is being utilized to enhance ICE investigations and operations on the Tohono O’odham Nation.
• Since transferring back to ICE in October 2006, the fifteen-member unit is responsible for the seizure of over 31,000 pounds of marijuana, over forty-three criminal arrests of smugglers and the seizure of 16 vehicles.
• Officers estimate in recent years they have seized an average of 60,000 pounds of illegal drugs a year.