Criminologist shares 7 things she's learned talking to drug mules and handlers

Daily Mirror

24-05-2025

Dr Fleetwood, senior lecturer in criminology at City St George's, University of London, and author of Drug Mules: Women in the International Cocaine Trade on how traffickers pick drug mules and what they tell them
A criminologist who has spent a decade studying the fate of drug mules reveals the the grim reality behind the instagram lifestyle. Bella Culley, from Teeside, was arrested on two weeks ago at Tbilisi International Airport, in Georgia, accused of smuggling 14kg of cannabis in to the ex-Soviet country from Bangkok, Thailand.
The 18-year-old has told a court she is pregnant. The next day, 21-year-old Charlotte Lee, from south London, was arrested at the international airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She claims the 46kg of synthetic cannabis called kush was planted in her luggage.
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Both deny the offences, but as two young British women languish in foreign jails facing a combined 45 years in prison, we spoke to expert Dr Jennifer Fleetwood, senior lecturer in criminology at City St George's, University of London. Her book Drug Mules: Women in the International Cocaine Trade won the British Society of Criminology Book Prize in 2015.
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Dr Fleetwood believes much of the public debate around drug mules is wrong and shared with us the findings from her research, interviewing drug mules and their handlers in Ecuador.
Young women who are arrested grab the headlines but most drug mules are men
"Most drugs mules are men but we don't tend to think about it that way. We think about women being the bodies and men being the brains. Drug trafficking is completely dominated by men and they represent 95% of the prison population. But there are more women involved as drugs mules than you would expect.
"Women and men often have different ways into the role. Men are more likely to be involved through associates while women get involved through men who know them, it might be a relative or a romantic partner."
Most drug mules know who they are working for
"We hear people talk about how they were persuaded by someone they just met - stranger danger. But my suspicion is that people who knew what they were doing probably tend to keep their heads down and accept their sentence. Most of the time, when people get involved it is through someone they know, or somebody who knows somebody they know.
"One woman I spoke to got into it through a friend. An abusive partner had left her with a huge amount of debt and she was about to lose her house. She spoke to a woman who had gone on a trip and made a lot of money."
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People who are coerced into it do not make the best mules
"The thing people always focus on is those who are forced into getting involved. But some drugs traffickers I have spoken to tell me those are the last people they want to use as mules. They will look nervous and are more likely to get caught."
Traffickers look for mules with a reason to travel
"When I spoke to people who recruited drug mules, they just looked for someone who had a reason to travel. Backpackers fit the bill but so do retired people. One person I spoke to was so big that he thought people were scared to search him.
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"They have an idea of what customs are looking for.Someone from a global south country with no reason to travel, a new passport and brand new shoes, will attract attention. A backpacker with lots of stamps in their passport is much better."
Sometimes drug mules are not told what they are carrying as it is 'better for them'
"Whenever people get involved in drug dealing, they are exploited. Normally, when you do a job you have an expectation of what will happen. But here none of that applies. Drug mules are misled. They might agree to carry a small item, a small amount of medicine, but they find there is a large figurine they have to carry.
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"They might agree to carrying cannabis but it is actually heroin. Sometimes they are not told what they are carrying. I have spoken to drug traffickers who say it is better for them that way as they won't be nervous. It is often blind belief. When they pack up the drugs it is done so that customs can't see it."
The drugs business is chaotic and things go wrong
"It is also a chaotic business. We think of them as criminal masterminds but the reality is very different from that. One backpacker I spoke to found they had packed up the drugs in a briefcase, the last thing she would look natural carrying."
Street value figures are misleading and some mules get paid nothing at all
" In the UK, street value used to be used as a measure of harm in the courts. It's not any more but police still insist on using it and it is really disingenuous. If they are being set up, they get nothing at all. If you are paying off a debt then again you are not being paid anything.
"But if you do get money, it could be £2,000. It could be £8-10,000. But everyone I spoke to was arrested - that's what they were promised. I don't know if they would have got it. It's not a great deal.
"In drug trafficking there are lots of people who get paid. The person who set it up, maybe a specialist who packs up the drugs. There might be someone who travels alongside them to make sure they don't disappear. Nobody gets a percentage except the investor, who might be one person or might be a collaboration of people."