Pubdate: Sun, 25 Aug 2002 Source: Associated Press (Wire) Copyright: 2002 Associated Press Author: Walter Berry, Associated Press DESERT TRACKERS TAKE SKILLS OVERSEAS For three decades, the Shadow Wolves have helped stem the flow of illegal drugs across the desert linking Mexico and the Tohono O'odham Nation's sprawling reservation in southern Arizona. Now the U.S. Customs Service's only American Indian tracking unit is heading to Europe in an attempt to curb the smuggling of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Three members in the 21-member group are spending most of this month in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Others have traveled to Kazakstan and Uzbekistan to train customs officials, border guards and national police to detect and follow the ground tracks of anyone suspected of carrying components of mass-destruction weapons. The goal is to improve those countries' tracking techniques so they can better train their own people. "Our environment is getting more and more dangerous every day. A lot of law enforcement agencies are looking to beef up at their borders and the Shadow Wolves can provide some of that training," said Kyle Barnett, associate special agent in charge for Customs' Arizona district. The overseas trips are being conducted under the auspices of the Export Control and Border Security program, a joint effort of the State Department, Customs Service and other agencies to assist more than two dozen nations, most of them in the former Soviet bloc. Customs officials said the one-week training sessions consist of classroom lectures on tracking techniques and outdoor simulations. "They basically teach them how to pick up foot signs," Barnett said. "The terrain in the Baltics is very similar to the Arizona desert. There's a lot of rocky terrain, so our trackers adapt well." Only a few members of the Shadow Wolves make the overseas trip at one time so it does not interfere with their Arizona jobs. It was only after a few original members retired in recent years that the Shadow Wolves membership was opened up to other tribes and women. "We're in the process now of asking (the federal government) to increase the group's number by an additional 10 trackers plus one supervisor," Barnett said. "There's enough work out there where we could quadruple their size and still keep them all busy." The group is made up of 19 men and two women, all Indians from nearly a dozen tribes around the country. It began in 1972 with around 12 men from the Tohono O'odham Nation under a program created by Congress to foster better relations with the tribe and help it patrol its reservation, which shares 76 miles of border with Mexico. "They have been a great asset," said Joseph Delgado, assistant tribal police chief. "They've helped us numerous times in everything from tracking down suspects in stolen vehicles to finding missing children. They assist us a lot." Based in Sells, the Shadow Wolves' size has steadily increased over the years. But its main mission has remained constant: to track down and stop smugglers hauling marijuana, cocaine or heroin on foot or horseback across the Mexican border. Customs officials say the armed Indian trackers seize more than 70 percent of the drugs the agency finds on the 3 million-acre Tohono O'odham reservation west of Tucson. Instead of relying on new high-tech equipment, the Shadow Wolves track the old-fashioned way - by looking for footprints, broken branches, disturbed rocks or fibers left behind by a burlap bag. And they do it at all hours of the day or night. "It's their heritage. Those tracking skills have been passed on from generation to generation," Barnett said. "They're a tremendous group of folks, and they work harder than anyone I know. They have success, and success breeds success." So far in the fiscal year that began last Oct. 1, the Shadow Wolves have arrested 400 smugglers and seized 96,000 pounds of marijuana, said John Martelli, one of the group's supervisors. "Marijuana is the drug of choice coming out of the Sells area," Barnett said. "But these people are successful at whatever they trail. They're the best I've ever seen." - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk