8k8 The American Drug Mules Smuggling Fentanyl Into the U.S.

The teenager practiced driving from his apartment in San Diego down to Tijuana and back, on the orders of the criminals he was working for in Mexico. He rehearsed how he would respond to questions from U.S. border officers. He tracked when the drug-sniffing dogs took a break.

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The men who were paying him had cut a secret compartment into his car big enough to fit several bricks of fentanyl. When they loaded it up for the first time and sent him toward the border, Gustavo, who was only 19 at the time, began to tremble.

At the checkpoint, he steadied himself like he had practiced, and calmly told the border officers that he was just heading home.

They looked at his American passport — and waved him through.

ImageIn 2021, when he was 19, Gustavo started working for a Mexican drug cartel, driving packages of drugs from Tijuana to California.ImageA Customs and Border Protection K-9 team inspecting vehicles at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in California.Fentanyl has become the leading killer of young adults

Leading causes of death in the U.S., ages 18 to 45

Fentanyl overdoses include all deaths caused by drugs, where the most prevalent drug was a synthetic narcotic, excluding methadone.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

By The New York Times

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