30 Lbs Of Pot Unknowingly Smuggled Across Border; How Do Drug Dealers Select 'Blind Mules'?

A 33-year-old Mexican woman allegedly carried 30 pounds of pot across the U.S.-Mexico border unknowingly, reported NBC San Diego on Monday. The packages were secured to the underside of her car with strong magnets.

The woman, whose name and hometown in Mexico were not released, had arrived at her downtown San Diego office on Friday at around 3 a.m. and was sitting in her car. In the parking lot, about an hour later, two men allegedly approached her car and began removing the packages from beneath it before the woman startled them and sent them running to a sedan, in which they made their getaway. When the woman called the police, they found six packages containing about 30 pounds of marijuana on the underside of the car. It is as yet unclear as to who might be responsible.

Mexicans who live along the border and work or study in the U.S. can be eligible for a SENTRI pass (which stands for Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection) after passing a rigorous background check. Holders of SENTRI passes cross the border using reserved lanes. In recent years, they have become popular targets for those who might utilize them as unknowing drug mules. In 2012 CNN reported on a man named Juan Andres, a student at the University of Texas at El Paso who would regularly cross the border from Ciudad Juarez. A random search executed on his car found two bags of marijuana and he was later convicted of drug trafficking; in a status hearing shortly after the decision, it was discovered that a case with matching details -- two bags with 50 pounds each of marijuana, a SENTRI pass -- was going through the courts. After review, the judge dismissed charges against Andres.

A federal complaint lodged by the U.S. government cited five cases similar to his, in which "blind mules" were unknowingly being selected to smuggle drugs across the border.

In another, disparate case of "blind mule" trafficking, an article in the New York Times Magazine this March told the story of Paul Frampton, a 70-year-old theoretical particle physicist who was sentenced to 56 months in an Argentina jail after falling victim to a dating website scam. Frampton took a bag full of cocaine into the country and was nabbed in the airport. He believed he was on his way to meet Denise Milani, a Czech supermodel.

No arrests have been made in the case, and police say the investigation is ongoing.