"This year, law enforcement agencies expect to seize as much as 800,000 pounds of marijuana crossing one stretch of border in southern Arizona that runs through the Tohono O'odham Indian Nation.

That's $1 billion worth of pot, and the Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that only about 20 percent of what's coming across is caught.

There's a new push to intercept more of the contraband, but it's a huge challenge. The terrain is rugged, it's sovereign Indian land, and some tribal members are working with Mexican drug cartels. The problem has become so acute that tribal leadership, long reluctant to talk about the matter, is addressing it directly.

"We are in a crisis," says Ned Norris, Tohono O'odham Tribal chairman. "We have too much drug activity ... we have too many of our people that are being bought into that system."

Indeed, over the past five years, tribal members have been involved in 30 percent of all drug cases presented to the U.S. attorney in the region."

Get the Story:
Border Tribe In Midst of Drug Smuggling 'Crisis' (National Public Radio 5/19)