2004 Press Releases

Native American Trackers Train Turkmen Border Guards to Detect Smugglers

Aug. 18, 2004

A Native American unit of the U.S. Customs Service is conducting a Strategic Enforcement Tracker (SET) training course for 25 officers of the State Border Service of Turkmenistan from August 16-20, 2004, in Ashgabat. A group of three Native American Indians, nicknamed "Shadow Wolves," that work to track down illegal smuggling along the U.S.-Mexico border, are visiting Turkmenistan to share their tracking experience with local border guards. The U.S. Embassy's Export Control and Border Security (EXBS) Program sponsored the trackers' visit and the training course in Ashgabat.

"Members of this special unit have built a reputation unequalled in the U.S. We are proud to introduce you to this uniquely American capability", said U.S. Ambassador to Turkmenistan Tracey Ann Jacobson addressing the participants on the first day of the training.

The course will include one day of theoretical studies and four days of field trips to areas with surroundings reminiscent of Turkmenistan's border areas. Smuggling detection skills, such as night tracking, counter tracking, tactical awareness of immediate surroundings, and techniques for discovering weapons of mass destruction, will be taught during the course. The EXBS program also donated 25 handheld GPS devices, 25 tool kits and 25 flashlights to the State Border Service of Turkmenistan, which are being used during the training.

The Shadow Wolves were founded in 1972 under a program created by the U.S. Congress to track drug smugglers transporting contraband - mostly marijuana - on Indian reservation lands. The Shadow Wolves have also traveled to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to train customs officials, border guards, and national police in those countries to detect and follow the tracks of people who may be transporting narcotics or components of weapons of mass destruction. The Shadow Wolves teach skills they learned on reservations searching for game or tracking their grandparents' free-roaming cattle and horses.

EXBS is an ongoing U.S. Government program supplying equipment and training to assist in increasing the effectiveness of border security, designed particularly to deter the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Previous EXBS assistance to the State Border Guards and State Customs Service of Turkmenistan includes UAZ jeeps, water trucks, X-ray equipment, contraband detection kits and training in detecting weapons of mass destruction.