Horsemen smuggling pot escape, but patrol keeps drugs, 2 horses

Unlike many who transport drug loads in four-wheel-drive pickup trucks, these men loaded their bundles of marijuana on horses, said Gustavo Soto, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.

At about 5:45 a.m., agents went to the Kino Springs area about 10 miles east of Nogales after a night-camera operator spotted three horses carrying bundles north, he said. Agents encountered three men on horseback about one-quarter mile north of the border.

One man cut the loads from the horse and rode back into Mexico. The other ran off. Agents recovered 22 bundles of marijuana weighing 529 pounds and seized the two horses, Soto said. They didn't arrest any of the riders, he said.

The horses were turned over to a contracted company that handles all seized property for the agency. That company will arrange for the horses to be quarantined to make sure they carry no diseases and put through an extensive examination, Soto said.

The Border Patrol keeps horses that meet its requirements for the agency's horse patrol.

In fiscal year 2006, agents in the Tucson Sector seized 49 horses and kept 22 of them. So far in fiscal year 2007, which began Oct. 1, agents have seized 19 horses and kept three of them, Soto said.

It appears that the two horses seized Wednesday won't be fit for the horse patrol, he said. The agency turns horses unfit for patrol over to the state, which puts them up for public auction, Soto said.

Smuggling drugs on horseback isn't unusual but is far less common than sending the loads in backpacks carried by drug runners who walk for days or driving them north in vehicles, Soto said. Horses move faster than humans and make less noise than cars, and they are often used in remote areas, including mountains, he said.

The 529 pounds of marijuana — which has an estimated value of $529,000, according to figures from the National Drug Intelligence Center — is a fairly average seizure in the Tucson Sector, the busiest along the southern border for drug seizures.

From Oct. 1 through Jan. 31, agents seized 299,154 pounds of marijuana, more than 2,400 pounds a day. The totals represent a 31 percent increase from the same period in fiscal year 2006, when the amount of marijuana seized shattered previous records.