FBI Director Kash Patel visits Arizona tribes, pushes Operation Not Forgotten

FBI Director Kash Patel traveled to southern Arizona this week to meet with law enforcement partners from the Pascua Yaqui and Tohono O’odham nations, according to KGUN 9. Afterward he posted on X about the meetings, calling the nations “key partners of ours in the fight against violent crime all across the country.” He highlighted the April 2025 launch of “Operation Not Forgotten,” an interagency surge designed to deliver more investigative resources to tribal lands and said the effort aims to change vulnerabilities to drug trafficking, cartels and other violent crime.

According to KGUN 9, the Justice Department’s Operation Not Forgotten has deployed rotating teams of FBI personnel to support field offices across the country, surging 60 FBI staff into 10 field offices to assist unresolved violent-crime investigations in Indian Country. At the start of fiscal 2025, the FBI’s Indian Country program had roughly 4,300 open investigations, including hundreds involving deaths, child abuse and sexual violence. Officials said tribal and federal partners will continue coordinating on investigations, training and technology sharing.