Heroin's Global Reach
Kosuke Okahara / Agence VU / Aurora
The Mule
Mauricio, 21, demonstrates how he swallows a heroin capsule for transport from Colombia to the U.S. He will be paid $5,000 for his services. Such people risk imprisonment, or worse. If a drug pellet bursts in the stomach, killing the carrier, drug dealers have been known to retrieve the remaining merchandise with a knife.
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