Feds seize nearly $5M in drugs, arrest 86 on Arizona tribal lands
May 31, 2018, 9:48 AM
(Twitter Photo/@USIndianAffairs)
(Twitter Photo/@USIndianAffairs)
PHOENIX — A federal task force announced Thursday that it had seized nearly 10,000 fentanyl pills, hundreds of pounds of marijuana and arrested 86 in a drug bust on Arizona tribal land.
The Department of Interior’s sting also confiscated 48 pounds of methamphetamine and other drugs, including heroin, on Tohono O’odham and Gila River reservations from May 15 to May 26.
The street value of all the drugs — 913.5 pounds — was close to $4.8 million.
The biggest seizures were the marijuana haul from the Gila River Reservation, worth $1,802,072, and the 33.2 pounds of methamphetamine valued at $1,754,212.
“It’s heartbreaking to see the scale of the problem,” Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said in a statement.
“And rather than further stigmatizing victims, we are cracking down on the dealers who are selling out our children, selling out our communities, and selling out our nation,” he added.
Opioid overdoses claimed 800 lives in Arizona last year, and rural areas were particularly hit hard.
“A drug-free Indian Country is a healthy Indian Country,” John Tahsuda, principal deputy assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, said in the statement.
Task force agents came from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Division of Drug Enforcement, the Tohono O’odham Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, Border Patrol, Pascua Yaqui Tribal Police Department, San Carlos Apache Tribal Police Department, Gila River Tribal Police Department, Native American Targeted Investigations of Violent Enterprises and the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
