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Drug Cartels ‘Are Winning’: Border Crisis Ravaging Arizona, Montana Indian Reservations

Posted on Sunday, November 3, 2024
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by Outside Contributor
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A group of Native American Indian dancers in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

The Biden-Harris administration’s border crisis has had negative implications for all Americans, but one group that has suffered more than most—but received less attention than others—are American Indians living on reservations along the border.

As part of their efforts to smuggle drugs and traffic human beings across the southern border, Mexican cartels have specifically targeted and devastated these reservations.

Jurisdictional issues, insufficient law enforcement, and the open border all allow cartels to exploit tribal land and proliferate deadly substances like fentanyl on American Indian land.

Testifying before Congress earlier this year, Verlon Jose, chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona, revealed his tribal police force spends nearly half its time tending to immigration, drug smuggling, and other border issues.

In fact, the Tohono O’odham Nation spends $3 million of its own funds each year on border security. In 2020, the tribe’s drug-trafficking task force led an investigation into a cell of the Mexican Sinaloa cartel that seized 140 pounds of heroin and 20 pounds of fentanyl powder.

Just three years later, in December 2023, thousands of newly arrived illegal immigrants camped out on the Tohono O’odham reservation, angering tribe members as the massive group left behind trash and chopped down local mesquite trees for firewood.

That reflects a standard cartel tactic of funneling large groups of migrants across the border in one sector, distracting law enforcement while they smuggle drugs across elsewhere.

The Tohono O’odham reservation has been uniquely vulnerable to such issues due to its location on the Mexican border. But they’re not the only American Indians suffering at the hands of the Biden-Harris administration’s border policies. Even tribes in far-flung Montana have felt the consequences of—and spoken out about—the border crisis.

In February, the devastation the cartels had brought to the state and its reservations came to light. Montana’s isolation has resulted in drug prices 20 times higher than in major cities, attracting powerful cartels able to establish a monopoly on the trade.

“Right now, it’s as if fentanyl is raining on our reservation,” said Marvin Weatherwax Jr., a tribal business councilman in the Blackfeet reservation and member of the Montana state House of Representatives.

 “There is no doubt that the Mexican drug cartels are playing a major role in this crisis,” testified Bryce Kirk, a councilman for the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes of the Fort Peck, Montana, reservation. “They have found their way to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and embedded themselves in our communities and our families.”

Stacy Zinn, a former Drug Enforcement Administration official in Montana, testified before Congress in June that drug networks associated with both the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels had been discovered and dismantled on several reservations and across the state.

Over the past few years, these discoveries led to the prosecutions of several dozen cartel affiliates. Furthermore, Zinn claimed her DEA office was seriously unequipped for the monumental drug problems in Montana, with only four officials covering the entire eastern portion of the Big Sky State.

One of the reasons that cartels gravitate to Indian land is that it is more difficult to arrest them there. Tribal law enforcement officers only have the authority to arrest and prosecute fellow tribe members, while local and state law enforcement generally lacks jurisdiction on tribal lands without explicit permission from the tribes.

That has forced reservations to rely on the slow work of the FBI and other federal officials to secure warrants and arrests for cartel members. The criminals can thus move in and out of Indian land without fear of quick law enforcement action.

In an April congressional hearing, President Jeffrey Stiffarm of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana specifically blamed the crisis on the inaction of the federal government.

“The FBI doesn’t do anything on the reservation unless we have a death or serious crime,” he said. “They are reactive, not proactive.” Fort Belknap’s chief of police in June called on the Biden-Harris administration to secure the southern border and asked Congress to enact harsher penalties on fentanyl and methamphetamine.

“We are fighting a losing battle. The cartels are winning. The drug dealers are winning,” Stiffarm said.

Bennett Watts is an alumnus of the Young Leaders Program of The Heritage Foundation.

Wilson Beaver is a policy adviser for defense budgeting in the Allison Center for National Security at The Heritage Foundation.

Reprinted with Permission from The Daily Signal – By Bennett Watts & Wilson Beaver

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.

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Sue
Sue
1 month ago

So, where is our “great” humanitarian biden:harris? Where is the protection for the American Indians?

fred smith
fred smith
1 month ago

Biden and Harris both should both be brought up on charges for what they’ve done letting these murderers, rapists, terrorists and gangs into our country! Americans have been killed, raped and brutalized all because of the greed for power of the demonicrat party! The latest was a little five year old girl who was raped from one of these animals! Biden and Harris did all of this for votes to keep Demonicrats in power and they both should share the penalty for all of these crimes committed by illegals!

Robert Zuccaro
Robert Zuccaro
1 month ago

Whaaa? I thought Kamala “took on the cartels” singlehandedly when she was California Attorney General! Since he helped the cartels by opening the border, does Joe get his Big Guy 10%?

Rob citizenship--
Rob citizenship--
1 month ago

Praise for Bennett Watts and Wilson Beaver for this important article. The information presented here about the situation on Indian reservations regarding the invasion of drug gangs should alert people to some things that need to be fixed , need to be improved. Defense for the Tribes is needed. And it should start before the danger reaches native American land . With respect for all those Tribal police doing the best they can understand difficult circumstances. The spirit of all that is good and right and honorable be with the Tribal Nations . God bless America , land of the free, home of the brave. I visited the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina once in 1970 , that was the only time I had any experience speaking with Tribal people on their land . The book by Vine De Loria entitled ” Custer Died for Your Sins ” had an influence on my thinking around that time, still does in a way .

Robert
Robert
1 month ago

I wonder if the Cartels have been causing any trouble for the Cherokee Reservation in N.C.? Lord knows Governor Cooper would not stand in their way!

anna hubert
anna hubert
1 month ago

Where are they leaders? why are they not organizing a great pow wow in front of the WH, with drums beating and chanting dancing and demanding action from the White father They sure as heck are active when it comes to protesting the pipe line and other developments, there is plenty to say and now that the population is ravished by drugs they are silent? What is going on,who would dare to oppose them should they demand the action?

David Millikan
David Millikan
1 month ago

All with compliments of biden/harris.

Stephen Russell
Stephen Russell
1 month ago

Cant US tribes Unite on issue & have Army help?

Granny26
Granny26
1 month ago

Finish building that HIGH fence along the border from CA clear across the Mexican border. Electrify it. That will stop them from climbing over.

CLIFFORD F GERACI
CLIFFORD F GERACI
1 month ago

Democrats allowed this to happen. They thrive on chaos and anarchy. It is justification for the Government to get bigger and “take control” to “solve the problem” (that they themselves created)

Jack
Jack
1 month ago

In this day and age. Why are the individual reservation not in control of the tribes who live there? No excuse for them not being guardians of their own domain. The US Attorney general and FBI and Department of Justice should hand all law enforcement over to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Tribes themselves.

Kay
Kay
1 month ago

And here an Indian tribe banned the governor of South Dakota for talking about this very subject. Why would the Biden-Harris administration do anything to help protect the Indian people? Talk about the forgotten. The media talks about the African Americans, and Hispanics, and Asians. Has even one outlet talked about the Indian tribes? No, they haven’t and won’t.

HocasPocas
HocasPocas
1 month ago

My Lord, Jesus Christ, will soon be sitting on his throne in the promised land, ruling over this earth and providing justice to all. When his children finally accept him as their rightful King, this will all be forgotten.

Daniel Penny
biden and harris speaking in black and white
A row of supercomputers running simulations of quantum cryptography algorithms to test their efficiency and effectiveness
President Joe Biden, son Hunter Biden and sister Valerie Biden walk across the South Lawn of The White House on July 28, 2024 in Washington, DC. President Biden is returning from a weekend trip to Camp David. (Photo by Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images)

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