I am noticing a pattern
First of all, background info:
When drug smugglers are about to move a great shipment of drugs - they _do not_ put this in the hands of airhead tourists.
They use airhead tourists as _decoys_
Whenever you thought drugs are smuggled through these douchebags, this is incorrect. These douchebags are simply systematic decoys. Havent you ever wondered why they always seem to smuggle between 1 and 10 kilos each time? Who the hell orders 10 kilos of heroin from one country to another, considering the risk of each movement? They dont, they order in the tens of kilos, hundreds at the time. even tons
And of course, hiring a decoy needs to follow a certain system. You cant just ask anybody to give up their life for you "Excuse me, but i wonder if you can be so kind as to get yourself life-time-sentenced, so we can move our own main shipment across the border"
The key is:
1) Find someone with clear signs of ADHD/ very distracted personality/poor ability to think AHEAD. I have seen this live, by the way. My dodgy friends would always send _the_ most ADHD-ridden airhead with a backpack to oslo, to smuggle kilos-at-the-time of hash to trondheim, and always pay him with petty favors, like "we're gonna give you an x-box game for it!" "AW YOU MEAN IT!? A GAME!? FOR FREE :0"
2) Offer a prize, as above^ for short trips, offer an x-box game. The airhead you have secured, is for that exact reason. Anybody with more of a fore-thought would realize the _tremendous_ risk (besides, they would realize that in many cases, they arent even meant to make the trip - since they are decoys in the first place)
The prize usually is the trip itself. Sounds ridiculous doesnt it? But thats how they do it.
Instead of saying "Hi, we need you to go to fuckin colombia, and smuggle 10 k's of cocaine back"
theyll instead say "Hi, do you want a FREE vacation in colombia? All expenses covered!!!"
to an airhead "all expenses" sounds super-duper generous, sometimes theyll even throw in 1000 dollars of pocket money "A WHOLE THOUSAND OMG :0"
A norwegian mule, sentenced in bolivia i think, was given approx 2000 dollars (10 000 krones) as pocket money, and she of course found this to be mega-generous, and hurried off to bolivia to have a free vacation, oh and bring a backpack of cocaine into the airport.
As you can see, the mule being a distracted type is absolutely vital. As soon as they go "wait a minute, 10 kilos of cocaine, that sounds risky" you just cut in "vacation! sun! palms! all expenses!" and they turn into a little sun again "YAY!!!!"
its absolutely frustrating to watch, especially considering the saddening fact that they are simply decoys - not only are they not meant to make the delivery, but they are often ratted out by the smugglers themselves - so to guarantee the effect wanted by the decoy. more than often, officials will be waiting for the decoy mule, with a name, description, and sometimes even a detailed description of where/how the drugs are hidden.
but they always fall for it.
most of these episode tell of these stories, and nearly every one of them emphasized precisely how excited they were about being a drug mule, with their mind solely focused on the vacation-aspect of it.
to me, its mindboggling, but the explanation is of course that they are hopelessly distracted types.
