Drug runners in the area?

It was a busy day. School got out at 10:30am in preparation for next week's spring break.  I took advantage of the early release to get my covid hair cut short to my chin and pick up curry chicken from Golden Dragon Chinese.  It was windy out and that wind discouraged me from walking along the river in the early afternoon, so I stalled heading out with the pack.  Susan wanted to join me, but she had Holly and Robert over and couldn't join me until 3:30pm.  That's when I finally got going.

Naturally all the dogs wanted to join me, but this time even Minnie opted out.  It was just the pups with Zeke and Sweetie.  I wore a sweatshirt over my shirt to keep the wind out as we headed north along the San Pedro river.  Without Minnie with us we could walk a little farther a little faster and made the beaver dam our destination.

The southern end of the dam is 1.9 miles from the casa when following the bird trail along the river.  We had just turned into the bend area along the river when Susan saw two men.  I saw one man and only his head and shoulders.  He had seen us.  He whistled and the dogs ran toward him but didn't bark.  Not to bother him, I called the dogs back to me.  They came back running to me so there was no close contact.  Susan immediately told me we needed to get out of the area, as people do not naturally call other peoples' dogs to them.  "Those are illegals!: she said.  "Let's get out of here!"  I was willing to just make a wide berth around the two men and continue the walk north, but this time I went with Susan's gut feeling that there were not just two illegals taking a break along the river.

So our walk to the dam was quickly cut short.  We walked right back to our cars and left. While I never felt in danger, Susan's years on Long Island have made her more suspicious of any activity than I.

Not even an hour later, now safely back home and not thinking much about that short incident, Susan called me.  She normally texts me (and she had) but I didn't hear the text message.  She called to tell me she stopped a US Border Patrol (USBP) agent on her way home who was near the Hereford bridge and told him about our experience.  The agent told her we had most likely walked into a drug smuggler who was not calling for the dogs to come to him, but to warm other drug smugglers in the area that two civilians were approaching and to lay low.  The agent then called in for reinforcement near the Hereford bridge as that is where the smugglers were most likely headed to. 

The agent also told Susan that drug trafficking is on the rise.  With the current influx of migrants coming up from Central America, many of whom were held back on the Mexican side while awaiting asylum under Trump, drug smugglers are taking this opportunity to come across as well.  Too many USBP agents are busy at migrant processing shelters to be available to surveil the San Pedro river.  The agent also told Susan that there is an increase in drug smuggling in Ash and Lutz canyons.  Too many "bad people" are getting apprehended by USBP.  We should practice caution when hiking alone.

Our immediate neighborhood has been calm, but I've seen two groups of illegals get pulled over on SR92 either on my way to the high school, or on my drive home this past week.

***

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