DRUG CARTELS LOAD UP YOUNG 'MULES'

The driver seemed nervous as she tried to cross the border from Mexico into
Calexico, Calif., so U.S. Customs agents pulled her over. Their hunch proved
correct: Hidden in the interior panels of the 1989 Mercury Tracer were 35
pounds of methamphetamine, worth about $ 321,000.

In many ways, it was a routine bust in the round-the-clock drug-trafficking
game along the U.S.-Mexico border. But this time, the smuggler was just 16.

The girl is among hundreds of teens arrested along the border this year in
what authorities say has been a surge in the use of young smugglers by
international drug cartels. From California to Texas, border officials
report a significant increase in the number of minors hired to smuggle
thousands of pounds of marijuana, heroin, steroids, methamphetamine and
Ecstasy into the USA.

Drug traffickers consider teens ideal drug "mules," or couriers, because
they are relatively cheap and willing labor, authorities say. The youths
tell authorities they do it for fast cash -- as much as $1,000 for a drug
run into this country.

The rise in smuggling by juveniles is "a big problem," says Jose Rodriguez,
the county attorney in El Paso County, Texas, whose office prosecutes many
of the youths. "We've had kids as young as 12 and from every kind of family.
They're just getting enticed by the allure of a quick buck."

Juveniles continue to make up a tiny percentage of those busted for
smuggling along the U.S.-Mexico border, but U.S. Customs figures show
increases in juvenile arrests this year along the California border and at
El Paso, another key entry point for smugglers.

In the first 7 months of this year, Customs agents in California arrested
109 juveniles. That was well ahead of the pace set in 2000, when 154
teenagers were arrested the entire year. At El Paso's border crossing,
Customs agents arrested 100 juveniles on smuggling charges during the first
6 months of this year, compared with 155 for all of last year. Other
agencies made additional arrests. In 1997, 83 juveniles were arrested in El
Paso for smuggling.

As is the case with adult smugglers, authorities say that for every few
young smugglers they arrest, it's likely that many others make it into the
USA.

In Mexico, drug traffickers recruit teen couriers outside schools or at bars
in border cities such as Juarez and Palomas, popular drinking spots for
Americans who are under 21 and can't legally buy alcohol back home. On the
U.S. side, authorities say, traffickers recruit couriers at arcades and
malls and outside schools. They typically offer $ 300 to $ 1,000 a trip and
promise cellphones, pagers and, sometimes, cars.

The kids, usually 14 to 17 years old but some as young as 12, are told to
drive a car packed with drugs from Mexico into the USA. They often are
instructed to park the car in a certain place, such as outside a fast-food
restaurant, where an adult trafficker will retrieve it, authorities say. The
traffickers tell the teens that because they are minors, they won't face
serious consequences if they are caught.

The border traffickers are following the lead of inner-city dealers, who
often have kids carry drugs for them. Youths arrested for drug possession
and tried in juvenile courts generally face lighter sentences than adults.
Adults convicted of drug offenses in federal courts spend an average of 6
years and 3 months in prison; juveniles usually get probation, according to
the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Mexican kids, however, can be banned from
the USA for life for immigration violations.

Authorities say many traffickers have set up smuggling rings that rely
heavily on young couriers. However, not all of the juveniles involved in
smuggling are being manipulated by adults. In an El Paso case, Customs
agents identified two teen girls at the head of a smuggling ring.

"They are very much entrepreneurs," says Patti Kramer, associate special
agent in charge for U.S. Customs in El Paso. "These are very savvy kids."

As is the case with all juvenile defendants, the girls' names were not
released by authorities. The girls, whose case is headed to court, recruited
friends to carry 80- to 100-pound shipments of marijuana and
methamphetamine, Kramer says. One told authorities she made about 150 trips
and was paid more than $ 50,000 over 18 months.

"We're not talking about a few joints here," Kramer says. "This is hundreds
of pounds of marijuana. That's a business."

As authorities have become more likely to stop kids driving into the USA,
Mexican drug traffickers have begun using youths as decoys. They will have a
teenager drive a car to the border with a few pounds of marijuana, and as he
or she approaches the U.S. inspection point, a trafficker will call Customs
with an anonymous tip describing the teen's car. While agents are
preoccupied with searching that car, the traffickers will have someone else
drive through the checkpoint with a larger load of pot.

A Customs agent in El Centro, Calif., says he had a case in which four men
in their 20s recruited 23 teenage girls as marijuana couriers with promises
of money, cars, cellphones and pagers. Some of the girls didn't know how to
drive, so the recruiters gave impromptu lessons in a parking lot in Mexico.

Among the most recent arrests:

* On April 19, Customs agents arrested four teens who were carrying
marijuana as they tried to enter El Paso. The youngest, a 14-year-old girl
from Juarez, was arrested just before 4:30 p.m. with about 66 pounds of pot.
Three hours later, agents caught an El Paso boy, 17, trying to smuggle 103
pounds of pot into his hometown.

A few minutes later a Juarez boy, 17, tried to go through with 83 pounds.
Finally, at 10:40 p.m., an El Paso boy, 17, was caught with 122 pounds. With
an estimated value of $ 1,000 a pound, the pot confiscated in the arrests
was worth a total of about $ 374,000, authorities say.

* Two youths, ages 17 and 15, were arrested May 25 when Customs agents found
1,570 pounds of marijuana, worth about $ 1.6 million, in a car and travel
trailer the agents had tracked from the border to Douglas, Ariz.

The girl arrested at Calexico in May, a U.S. citizen who lived in the
Mexican border city of Mexicali, has admitted smuggling drugs. Her case has
been sent to a juvenile court in Fresno County, Calif., where she has
relatives.

Officials in U.S. border towns are dismayed by the rising number of youths
with no history of trouble who have risked their futures to be drug mules.

"These kids are just pawns for the traffickers," says Ken Riley, mayor of
Columbus, N.M., a community whose downtown is 3 miles from Palomas. "If
three or four out of 10 (kids) make it across with the drugs, (the
traffickers) make a profit. The kids don't really see the consequences of
being caught, that it will ruin their lives."

Riley says he knows several youths who have been caught smuggling. One
Mexican boy he knows well spent 4 months in a juvenile facility before being
deported. He's now barred from entering the USA for life, Riley says.

"I know why (Mexican youths) do it," he says. "If they can find work in
Palomas, they (make) less than $ 1 an hour. The U.S. kids want the extra
money for a car, a stereo, maybe the excitement. The kids are ignorant of
what really happens. (They) are in terrific danger."

When teen smugglers are caught, they often are shocked, says Samuel Santana,
chief juvenile probation officer in El Paso County.

"They're told nothing is going to happen to them," he says. "And then all of
sudden, they are locked up. . . . Most of them will start crying. They
come in with this toughness facade, but eventually they all break down and
become kids again."

GRAPHIC: Busted: Customs agents remove marijuana found in the trunk of a car
trying to enter the USA at El Paso. Authorities estimated the haul at 50
pounds, worth about $50,000. The El Paso border crossing is a major
drug-smuggling point. Busy border: Cars line up to cross into the USA at El
Paso. Teens working for traffickers try to slip through in cars packed with
drugs.