U.S. citizens are being used as fentanyl ‘mules’

By T.J. Wilham

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    ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — The majority of people caught at the southern border with fentanyl are U.S. citizens, according to new data obtained by a policy research institute.

Here in New Mexico, the drug has been blamed for the state’s current crime crisis.

As a result, hundreds of millions in tax dollars have been spent trying to add treatment programs.

“I see it every day,” said Raul Bujanda, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Albuquerque Field Office. “And, anytime we go and do a search warrant, it’s rare that we do a search warrant at a house. Whether it’s having to do with a crime against a child, with us having to do something on national security, whether it has to be something that you would expect, violent gangs or a drug-related search, and you don’t find these drugs.”

Experts say the cartels are hiring U.S. citizens to act as drug mules.

“They could look like you,” Bujanda said. “They can look like me. They can look like anyone that they feel will allow them to be able to make a little bit more lucrative profit.”

Bujanda says cartels are using U.S. citizens hoping they don’t get stopped by border patrol agents

“Cartels themselves saying targeting the specific groups of individuals, saying, we think that this group can be more successful at bringing drugs into the country, bringing our drugs to market, and we’re going to go ahead and make it lucrative for them,” Bujanda said.

The Cato Institute, a public policy organization, obtained the data through the Freedom of Information Act. From 2019 to 2024 it showed that more than 80 percent of the people caught at the border with fentanyl were U.S. citizens

“At the end of the day, the cartels are motivated by making profit,” Bujanda said. “You don’t really care about individuals.”

The data also shows the amount of fentanyl seized at the border has climbed in recent years, reaching more than 25,000 pounds of fentanyl seized in 2023. And already in 2024, we have reached half that mark.

A total of 88% of the seizures occur at ports of entry not at illegal crossings.

“Fentanyl is pills very easy to conceal whether it’s on a person whether it’s in a vehicle,” Bujanda said.

This week Democratic Congressman Gabe Vasquez visited the border. He and Sen. Martin Heinrich are trying to secure more than five million in federal funding to purchase new technology to prevent drug smuggling.

“Not only are they using Americans as mules and drug smugglers, but they’re using young people. Folks that are under 18,” Vasquez said. “So it shouldn’t be a surprise, to folks that live down in places like in Santa Teresa, but perhaps to the rest of the country who attacks immigrants for being the fentanyl smugglers. It’s actually American citizens that are the majority who are smuggling fentanyl into this country.”

Republican candidate for Sen. Nella Domenici says we need to also strengthen border security.

“It just illuminates how deeply entrenched fentanyl is in America,” Domenici said. “And it’s so entrenched that people actually are in the business of selling fentanyl and in the business of working with cartels to help sell it.”

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