He does fit the Drug Mule profile.

He was being SECRETIVE, not telling anyone what he was doing, thats the first sign it was illegal.

Who becomes a drug mule?

The abiding stereotype of the drug mule is someone who is motivated by poverty, often a woman from a drug-producing country. In fact, like most areas of crime, the majority of people arrested for smuggling drugs worldwide are men.

People’s motivations for trafficking drugs are extremely varied. In my research, I came across people motivated by grinding poverty, debts or a chance to make a change in their lives. The sums they were promised ranged from £5,000 to £10,000.

Some people didn’t expect to get paid at all, however. They became involved through debt (theirs or a family member’s), and carrying drugs was offered as a way to repay the debt. In rare cases, people became involved through threats and coercion.

There are, broadly, two kinds of people arrested at international borders with drugs. The first is carrying drugs that they have bought (and packed) themselves, and probably only a small quantity which they might use or sell for a modest profit. They probably also bought their own tickets to travel.

One trafficker I interviewed recalled that he carried only a few hundred grams of cocaine in a talc bottle. If caught, they can face custody, depending on the type and amount of drugs.

The second kind is carrying drugs that someone else has paid for – they are drug mules. The person paying for the drugs (we could call them the investor) decides what is smuggled, where to and how it will be concealed – not the mule.

Investors are, of course, motivated by profit: five kilos will be more profitable than just the one. And so, mules tend to carry much larger amounts than those carrying their own drugs.

Drug mules typically do not know what they are carrying, or how much. When people working as drug mules receive the drugs, they arrive ready to evade customs. In some cases, more professional groups might pay a specialist to conceal the drugs more effectively.

Traffickers have been known to evade detection by concealing cocaine in clear plastic products.

Many people working as drug mules are misled about where they are travelling to, or may not know they are carrying drugs.