Drug smugglers using teenagers as mules to carry drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border is nothing new. But federal authorities say the types of drugs being smuggled and their risk to the teens and the community has increased.
Instead of marijuana, the teen smugglers are carrying meth and the pain-killer fentanyl, which can be lethal if the drug leaches through bags and touches the skin of people smuggling it under their clothes.
In response to an increase in the number of minors caught smuggling drugs at the border, federal law enforcement officials launched a campaign to warn minors about the consequences of drug smuggling.
The campaign includes three billboards along the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego and educational programs at South Bay high schools.
Sherri Hobson, a prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California, discusses the recent increase in minors smuggling drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border Monday on Midday Edition.
