‘The ultimate hunt’

They are the elusive foot soldiers of the Mexican drug cartels. They lug heavy, tightly packed bales of marijuana under cover of darkness across miles of terrain so rugged that the Border Patrol has to stalk them by footprint.

It is, as one agent put it, “the ultimate hunt.”

Another chapter in the drama chronicled in Tuesday’s Times unfolded after midnight recently in southwestern New Mexico. The area has become a busy corridor for smugglers as other parts of the border have tightened up. An agent had picked up the trail of six traffickers at dusk and tracked it through the mountains, where he was joined by a dozen other agents. By dawn, four men were in custody. The Border Patrol seized six packs of marijuana, a total of 275 pounds, with a street value of $220,000.