Mexican cartels have flooded Montana with fentanyl and meth — by setting up operations on Indian reservations, where law enforcement is limited, according to a report.
“They know who to pick,” Stephanie Iron Shooter, director of American Indian health for the Montana Department of Health and Human Services told NBC News.
“Just like any other predator-prey situation – that’s how it is.”
Drug pushers have discovered that the notoriously deadly fentanyl costs almost 20 times as much in the remote Big Sky State, where its population of 1.2 million is spread across 150,000 square miles of rugged terrain.
They would initially target Native Americans by giving them an initial supply of drugs, turning them into addicts, said former Drug Enforcement Administration investigator Stacy Zinn.
“Cartels will send their advance teams or individuals to find out who’s distributing small amounts on these reservations, who we can get our claws on,” said Zinn, who initially investigated the Mexican cartels from Texas before following their trail to Montana.
“And then when they do that, then they have it. We’ve seen it time and time again.”
Montana’s vast remoteness works in their favor — law enforcement already struggles to cover their vast territory.
The overdose death rate among Native Americans is more than double that of white Montanans in the decade leading up to 2020. US Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana
Another layer of difficulty is added when the trafficking trade takes place on Native American lands, where local and state officials are prohibited from arresting tribal members and tribal forces – underfunded and understaffed – are largely prohibited from arresting outsiders on reservations.
The laxity of the law provides security for cartels to operate in Montana, which is only made more attractive to traffickers as a result of the demand for drugs.
Fake fentanyl pills that can be made for less than 25 cents in Mexico sell for $3 to $5 in cities like Seattle and Denver where the drug market is more established, but up to $100 in remote parts of Montana, NBC reported.
“Right now it’s like fentanyl is raining down on our reservation,” Marvin Weatherwax, Jr. said. leg.mt.gov
A perfect storm makes the 1,300-mile cartel trip from the southern border more than worth it.
“The profits are just out of this world,” Zinn told the outlet.
The drug crisis has hit the Native American community, which accounts for less than 7% of Montana’s population, Census data shows.
The excess death rate among Native Americans will more than double that of white Montanans in the decade leading up to 2020.
Cartels target Native American reservations because of their limited law enforcement. AFP via Getty Images
Between 2017 and 2020, Montana’s opioid overdose death rate nearly tripled — with nearly 8 per 100,000 succumbing to the drug that year, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
“Right now it’s like fentanyl is raining down on our reservation,” Marvin Weatherwax, Jr., who serves on the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council and represents the 15th district in the Montana House of Representatives, told NBC.
Some desperate tribes have tried to fight back despite their limited resources.
The Northern Cheyenne tribe formed its own vigilante group, the People’s Camp, to fight the surge in violent crime and drug trafficking plaguing its community.
The tribe filed a lawsuit in 2022 against the Department of the Interior and its Bureau of Indian Affairs, alleging that the federal government breached its duty to keep residents on reservations safe by failing to provide enough law enforcement officers.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
