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Home » Cougar Foundation Hall of Fame » 2006 Cougar Foundation Hall of Fame Inductees » Jay Dobyns, Class of ’80, US Justice Department Agent

Jay Dobyns, Class of ’80, US Justice Department Agent

Jay Dobyns, Sahuaro High School Cougar Foundation Hall of Fame Honoree.

Jay Dobyns entered Sahuaro High School in the fall of 1976 as a freshman from Magee Junior High.

While at Sahuaro he was a member of the football and track teams. He graduated in 1980. His football accomplishments included all-city, all-state and all-America honors.

He received a football scholarship, alongside his friend and football partner, a SHS Hall of Fame member himself, Mark Mistler, to the University of Arkansas.

The following year, Jay transferred to the University of Arizona. He was a three-year starter for the Wildcats earning All-Pac 10 honors and being named as a member of U of A’s All-Century Team.

Following graduation from Arizona and after a short stint in professional football, Jay Dobyns became a Federal Special Agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Tucson.

After only ten days on the job he was taken hostage and shot through the chest. Eighteen months later he was shot again while attempting to arrest gang members in Chicago. He has responded to crime scenes such as the Branch Davidian assault in Waco, Texas, the Columbine High School massacre, the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles and the terrorist attacks of September 11th.

Jay’s specialty has been undercover work. He has purchased guns, bombs and drugs from street gang members, persons involved in organized crime, militia organizations and drug cartels.

He specializes in deep cover assignments that include posing as a hitman in the investigation of murder-for-hire schemes and as a drug dealer trying to prevent home invasion narcotics robberies. In 1996 Jay infiltrated an organization that intended to use explosives to blow three fully occupied Las Vegas casinos successfully saving thousands of lives.

Of late he has received much attention for his two-year undercover infiltration of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Gang. The Hells Angels had never been infiltrated during their 57-year history. Posing as a hitman and debt collector, Jay became a member of the gang and lived the life of an outlaw biker for two years.