Illuminated by the faint light of a golden moon, saguaro cactus, multi-stemmed ocotillo and sagebrush whizz past. Donkey has decided to make a run and agents on the back of three other horses bolt across the Sonoran Desert just ahead. We had only been in the Border Patrol truck for about 15 minutes, horses and trailer in tow, when the call came. Seven men seen through night vision goggles hiking across the remote desert, huge packs of drugs on their backs, now agents ride full speed dodging stuff. Half the time you can't even make it all out.
Brian Reed, Travis Johnson and Juan Claudio form the team that I have tagged along with on this night. All told, there are 14 agents on the Ajo horse team and these three have handed me the reins of a horse known as 'Donkey.' Captured from smugglers several years back, the ten year-old gelding gets complimented as the "Cadillac of the herd" and I quickly understand why while trying to feel the difference between his trot and gallop. His gait can only be described as smooth and from the outset I realize this horse likes to lead.
I have ridden before and have a paint horse of my own, but other than riding 150 years ago with a gang of outlaws, nothing can really prepare someone for what lies ahead. Even so, before the sun went down agents put me through a test to ensure I wouldn't put them, or me, in a dangerous situation. I pass, likely more due to horse than the rider.
Back to the action…simply put, Donkey gets up and goes. He easily races through the organ pipe and sage to keep up with the others, only slowing to traverse through washes and other barely seen marks in the desert. I am following the team leader Brian, at this point, doing my best to stay out of the way. Travis and Juan have taken off in a different direction and the thundering of hooves of their horses galloping along can be heard off to my right-hand side.
As Donkey picks up considerable speed, I pull back on the reigns. Verbal queues are avoided since it might tip off the smugglers easier than just hearing the echo of horseshoes on the desert floor. Minutes later, about 30 yards away, I hear Juan yelling in Spanish for someone to get down on the ground and I rein Donkey in that direction and we again begin the race across the desert. I am here to document, so out of my jacket I grab my flashlight and camera, Juan and his horse are now just feet away. One smuggler staggering from a fall stumbles into my horse and then follows directions in Spanish and lies face first on the desert. Other yelling can now be heard, so I switch my light from hard-to-see red to white, which better lights up the darkened and arid scenery. Two more men being led by agents on horses, each carrying massive sacks of dope. They too join the line-up, laying flat on the ground as the dope gets piled nearby.
Travis then heads out to scout a bit in the area, while Juan and Brian control the scene. Other agents from the Ajo station arrive in SUVs on a rugged dirt road about 150 yards away and with them our photographer Scott King and producer Ron Ralston. They jog across the landscape and once on site, their lights also help show quite a haul. More than 350 pounds of marijuana with a street value of roughly $250,000…and the night has only just begun.
“We can get there quicker…the horses can see in the dark, so we can ride up within feet. The aliens think it is just another horse walking around in the desert,” says Brian. Juan tells me when drug smugglers are involved there's always the likelihood of more danger because many are armed as the mostly fight each other and other cartels trying to control the operations. I am told by both men drug busts numbers have skyrocketed in this remote wildland in the last year.
The men dismount and then use the horses to pack the drugs over to the road. The three suspects are led in front, a few others would be captured later by another group of border agents.
Once back to the roadway and the drugs and smugglers loaded into the back of the trucks, the team mounts up and heads back to the trailer for yet more calls. Forty illegals seen through night vision and radar walking about 15 miles away. Then another group of 50 heading toward the hills and a group of fifteen about 30 miles south. The hunt to protect our borders consumes every second as there is an obvious mix of new and old, horses and technology.
On horseback, ATV, SUV, foot and even in helicopters, the desert comes alive at night. As Ajo Field Ops Supervisor Cesar Acosta tells me, they do their best to be less intrusive to such a beautiful landscape and that's yet another reason why the horses are so valuable. Technology can point out trouble and horses with riders can get there safest and cleanest. He says, “In mixing the new technology, which is the mobile systems (the MSS) and the horse patrol, makes a faster or quicker means for us to apprehend or interdict a group of illegals crossing the border or drugs crossing the border.”
Once loaded back into the trailer, the team races again down crusty, rugged roads heading towards the group of 40. Another horse team has gotten there first and has the group seated in two lines when we ride up. Clearly these immigrants are looking for work, as drug bundles are nowhere to be seen. One tells us he had work already set up for him at a winery in Napa Valley. Another tells me he is from the state of Michoacan and apologizes for being caught. I am told 30-40 percent of those caught like this end up having criminal records of some sort once fingerprints are run, but one in the group catches my eye.
He sits behind his father, or so it seems. He can't be any older than 8 or 9 and from my perch aboard Donkey, he looks even smaller. In 8 years of covering this border for Fox News, this always gets me. I have seen kids captured before and in years past watched on the Mexican side as they bought water and prepared to cross with their families. Your heart sinks for what they have been through and seen already at such a young age. The men tell me they have walked nearly 30 miles through this harsh desert over the course of the last couple of days and this boy has been with them.
It is still many hours before light will peak above the mountains in the eastern sky, yet both of these horse teams are done in the field. They have hours of reports and processing of drugs and people ahead. Donkey and I ride just off to the side and watch as the people are walked towards the highway and a number of SUV's now parked alongside. Once everyone gets loaded, I take out his bridle and load him into the trailer with the others.
The horses in so many ways provide the advantage here in this western outpost as they have been for generations. They see better at night, move swifter and quieter through the desert than any other vehicle and as Brian tells me, “When the illegals see a horse they say aah I am not going to run. With an ATV out in the dark, they can hear the ATV coming they can start scattering before the group even gets there. With a horse we can get right up on them, they see the horse, they relate it’s a horse and it’s an animal and he’s just doing his job and they don’t want to hurt the horse, so it makes everything a lot easier.”
But nothing is truly easy in this neck of the woods…for everyone and everything involved.
