Migrants Say They're Unwilling Mules For Cartels : NPR

Migrants Say They're Unwilling Mules For Cartels : NPR

"Mexican drug cartels have found a new source of labor to backpack marijuana into the United States: illegal immigrants.

Federal agents, prosecutors, defense attorneys and migrants themselves say that traffickers have begun recruiting undocumented immigrants at the border, both voluntarily and forcibly. Now, U.S. courts along the border have to decide what to do with terrified immigrants who come before them and say, "The cartel made me do it."

Rodolfo and Jose Luis were fairly typical economic immigrants. Strong, resourceful and poor, they arrived at Ojinaga, Mexico, with the intention of crossing the border and making their way to Colorado to look for work as roofers. But when they arrived at the Rio Grande on Oct. 21, ready for the journey north, they were met by three trucks full of heavily armed young toughs belonging to La Linea, a drug gang based upriver in Juarez.

"They hit us, threw us on the ground, searched us and took our money," Rodolfo said at the Pecos Criminal Justice Center in Pecos, Texas. "Then they told us if we didn't smuggle drugs for them, they would kill us. They didn't give us any other option."

So that's what Rodolfo and Jose Luis did. They each shouldered a 50-pound backpack full of marijuana and carried it across the dry riverbed into Presidio County, Texas. The cartel guide who accompanied them carried a radio, but no weapon. So as soon as they were out of sight of the border, they dropped the dope in the brush and high-tailed it north. The next morning, Border Patrol agents found them tromping through the desert and arrested them for illegal entry.

"I told the Border Patrol that we were forced to carry it," Rodolfo said. "They told us we were lying. I said, 'No, I'm telling the truth. We'll show you.' So we took them to the place near the river and the marijuana was still there."

In November, the prosecutor dropped the charges. Rodolfo and Jose Luis — fearing for their lives — were deported back to Mexico. They asked that their last names not be used in this story."