The profits generated by drug-trafficking are so high that many do not measure the consequences. Such is the situation for many drug “mules” who carry cocaine capsules either on their person or even inside their bodies, at the risk of their own lives.
In northern Argentina, increasing numbers of farm hands, manual labourers, construction workers and local guides are becoming “drug mules,” one of the lowest-ranked links in the chain of contraband bypassing customs and road controls to get narcotics to their destination.
Variously known as “mochileros,” “burreros” or “caminantes,” some mules carry as much as 20 kilos of cocaine on their backs, crossing mountains and valleys without caring about the weather or visibility. The trip can take long hours or even over a day, depending on the route assigned by the group “coordinator.”
In late August, in the northwestern province of Salta, Border Guard officers arrested 11 mules. Many of them were farm hands. They were carrying in their “luggage” a total of 202 kilos of cocaine.
For many in the impoverished region, the narcotics business makes millions and pays much better than a day of sowing or reaping. To give some dimension of what we are talking about, a kilo of cocaine of maximum purity is worth around 55,000 euros in Europe. These men were transporting a cargo worth 11 million euros (or more than 11.7 billion pesos). Little of that, of course, makes it down to the pockets of those carrying the drugs on their person or on their backs.
The suspects were apprehended in jungle terrain some 20 kilometres from the Bolivian frontier near the Salta city of Embarcación, a drug-trafficking hotspot. According to the sources, the great difficulty presented by this zone is the dense vegetation which can only be crossed on foot by a guide who knows the paths.
Around 3pm on August 28, a squad of Border Guards patrolling the zone noticed the presence of a group of mules climbing up a mountain and following the indications of a man carrying a shotgun. All were carrying camouflaged backpacks of the same size and weight.
It took several hours before they could finally be detained. The head of the group, identified as local resident Ramón Sabán, was one of the first to be caught. He said he was out hunting but his 14-calibre shotgun had only one cartridge, a striking detail in a zone with a great variety of wild animals.
Early the next day three more members of the group were captured. Soon afterwards in an operation on the Ruta Nacional 34 highway, also known as the “white route” or “cocaine route,” the Border Guards intercepted a Ford Ranger van carrying seven people, one of them sitting in the back with a scratched face.
The spokespersons said that they identified themselves as farm hands but were unable to say on what farm they were working or their specific tasks.
Federal prosecutor Marcos César Romero revealed that their backpacks contained a total of 195 packages of cocaine with a weight of 202 kilos.
The blind guide
Armando Martín Escalante is blind but that did not stop him from becoming the guide of another group of mules bringing in cocaine from Bolivia.
Last May, Escalante was accused of drug-trafficking related to 49 kilos of cocaine. He was already serving a 66-month prison sentence for drug-trafficking but had been granted house arrest as a handicapped person.
The blind man was curiously the person in charge of the negotiations to supply the drugs. His work included trips to Bolivia to coordinate and direct the transfer of the narcotics to the city of Orán and from there to Salta.
In the view of federal prosecutor Ricardo Rafael Toranzos, Escalante – along with another fugitive accomplice identified as Víctor Sánchez – headed a team of mules that crossed the frontier with Bolivia in the vicinity of Aguas Blancas.
Despite being blind, the accused directed the mules over the mountains and through the jungle, stated Toranzos.
Once on the Argentine side, the mules left their cargo at a local farm where it spent a period of “cold storage” before heading out again in transit to Salta.
According to the investigation, Escalante recruited his brother Rubén and even his housemaid Catalina del Valle Peralta into the trade. Both were also arrested in the same case.
The woman– granted the benefit of house arrest for having three small children in her care – even lent her house to store the drugs, according to the prosecutor.
The sleepwalkers
In late 2021 the PROCUNAR (Procuraduría de Narcocriminalidad) unit of prosecutors tasked with investigating drug-trafficking in the north of Argentina discovered the modus operandi of a criminal organisation of mules that crossed the hills at night.
Their investigation began after arresting a couple carrying over 123 kilos of cocaine. Suspects Primitivo Valencia and Atilia Vilte were arrested on the so-called “white route” in the Jujuy department of Santa Catalina, at a distance of 67 kilometres from the frontier city of La Quiaca.
According to the case, the accused arrived there in a Ford F100 van where they spent some minutes observing the mules climbing down the side of the hill while lighting up their way with torches.
As in the other cases, the drugs arrived from Bolivia and, after being introduced into Argentina, were transferred via the Andean corridor of Salta and Jujuy.
The couple used a regular group of mules who knew the zone very well. It was they who took care of the first stage of transportation with the drugs loaded into backpacks and following paths through hills and canyons before finally reaching Ruta 40.
The six “burreros” or “caminantes” who dumped their backpacks after a long journey managed to escape and were never heard from again.
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