By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-03 15:36:23 | Updated at 2026-09-03 16:08:59
41 minutes ago
FBI Director Kash Patel said on Wednesday that authorities arrested multiple people and seized drugs and weapons during an operation targeting violent gangs in tribal communities.
Carried out between May 1 and July 31, the operation resulted in 86 arrests; 62 drug seizures, including meth and cocaine; and the recovery of 146 weapons, Patel said in a post on social media.
“To the gangs, cartels, and violent thugs who think Tribal lands are somewhere you can operate unchecked: Those days are OVER,” he wrote. “We’re coming after you. We’re dismantling your networks. And we’re going to keep showing up for these communities until the job is done.”
The FBI joined forces with state, local, tribal, and other federal partners in the operation called “Trusted Trails,” which Patel said aims to crush violent gangs and drug traffickers poisoning tribal communities.
The FBI has special jurisdiction to investigate certain crimes committed on about 200 reservations nationwide, primarily derived from the Major Crimes Act and the General Crimes Act, according to the agency.
In a July 2025 testimony during a House hearing, Justin Garris, section chief of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, said that the agency was increasingly seeing local criminal groups with links to major drug cartels exploit conditions in the Indian Country.
Specifically, these groups take advantage of remote locations and limited law enforcement resources there, Garris said. These criminals traffic narcotics and launder money, exerting control through violence and intimidation.
In Montana, Mexican cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, have targeted Indian reservations, Garris said. These groups ingratiate themselves with tribal members and embed their operatives within communities to expand coordination with cartel operations.
Transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) also use tribal land to “exploit the porous border between the United States and Mexico,” according to Garris.
“For example, the Tohono O’odham Nation in south-central Arizona runs along the U.S.-Mexico border for over 60 miles,” Garris said.
“TCOs take advantage of this vulnerability by trafficking drugs and illegal aliens into the United States through the region. The area serves as a transshipment zone for methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana destined for the United States.”
The vast Sonoran Desert stretches into the distance in the Tohono O'odham Reservation in Arizona, on Dec. 9, 2010. John Moore/Getty Images
In one recent case, the Department of Justice said in a July 21 statement that a joint operation conducted by tribal, local, state, and federal agencies—Operation Black Book—took down a multi-state cocaine trafficking organization.
Fourteen members of the trafficking group were arrested, Patel said at the time. The group was operating near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Southwest South Dakota. These individuals allegedly flooded Pine Ridge and the surrounding Indian country with narcotics, with the activity going unchecked for years.
Conducted in June and July, the operation also led to the seizure of more than 37 firearms, roughly 11 pounds of cocaine targeted for distribution in South Dakota, and more than $61,000.
In October 2025, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) introduced the Tribal Warrant Fairness Act.
One of the bill’s provisions allows tribal law enforcement agencies to participate in regional fugitive task forces. The bill passed the Senate in June this year and is now in the House.
