Feds on traffic stops: It's not about Burning Man. It's about drugs.

Jennifer Kane | Reno Gazette Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Watch: Burning Man growth is hurting the playa, Gerlach local says Gerlach resident Laura Blaylock shares some concerns she and other locals have over the growth of Burning Man.

UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect Thursday's statement from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.

Federal authorities insist that traffic stops taking place south of the Burning Man event site have nothing to do with Burning Man; rather they are part of an effort to crack down on a nationwide opioid epidemic on tribal lands.

“It has nothing to do with Burning Man. That’s not it. It’s a serious problem that Indian Country has, that the country has. This is an opportunity to help the tribe,” said Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, on Wednesday afternoon.

Since late last week, both BIA and tribal police from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe have been pulling over dozens of vehicles passing through tribal lands on State Route 447, the only main road to and from the Burning Man event site.

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More than 60,000 people are expected to be traveling the route this week and through the weekend, according to Burning Man organizers. The event officially begins Sunday and lasts through Sept. 3.

This is not about Burners, though, Darling insists.

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“If they are driving through and they’re not breaking the law, then they should have no problem," she said.

Burning Man attendees have been known to partake in controlled substances during the event, as evidenced by arrest and citation records from local and federal law enforcement authorities. More than 50 people each year are arrested at the event, most on drug-related charges, and dozens more are cited for drug-related violations.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has not been involved in enforcing the law in years past, but BIA officers in partnership with tribal officers have been stopping vehicles for minor infractions, including having tires touch the lane shoulder, displaying dim tail lights and driving as little as 3 mph over the posted speed limit, according to social media reports. Law enforcement officers are also searching the vehicles, sometimes with K9 units.

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The effort is part of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Opioid Reduction Task Force, a task force created in the past year by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to help achieve President Donald Trump's mission to end the opioid epidemic in the U.S, according to Darling. The new task force seized $4.79 million in drugs from tribal reservations in Arizona in May and more than $2.5 million in drugs from tribal reservations in New Mexico in April.

“It’s not a new issue, it’s just becoming more and more critical,” Darling said.

The operation’s overlap with peak Burning Man activity is coincidental, Darling said, though she did not know why exactly the task force chose to conduct the operation during this period. The dates likely worked for both the task force and the tribe, she said.

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“We’ve had lots of tribes reach out to us to do this, and if they don’t want to do it, they can decline. We are doing this in partnership with the tribes, not just going in there on our own,” Darling said.

The Bureau spoke with the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe a while back, Darling said, and tribal authorities decided that they would like to take part. Several weeks ago, the tribal council approved the agreement, a document which is only available through the tribe, she said.

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Tribal authorities have not returned calls for comment this week, though Tribal Chairman Vinton Hawley on Thursday issued a written statement confirming that the BIA approached the tribe and the goal of the operation is to combat drug abuse, specifically heroin and opioid distribution.

"The Criminal Interdiction Operation has been focused on highways known for being high drug trafficking routes into and through Indian Country. This collaboration focused efforts on conducting high visibility enforcement operations with specialized drug interdiction teams," Hawley said in the letter.

The tribal council approved an agreement with the Bureau and Burning Man organizers met with both tribal and Bureau officials the same week as the law enforcement activity began.

Other agencies coordinating services related to Burning Man -- including the Bureau of Land Management, Nevada Department of Transportation and the Nevada Highway Patrol -- have declined to comment on the matter.

Burning Man organizers are none too happy about the presence of BIA officers on the sole route to Burning Man since it already has slowed preparations of Black Rock City and is expected to further slow traffic in and out of the event. Travel time from Reno to the Burning Man site takes about two hours during the off-season, but can take up to 10 hours during the week of the event.

Organizers called the law enforcement operation aggressive, unconstitutional and unnecessary on Tuesday.