I just watched The Mule starring Clint Eastwood as an elderly man who becomes a courier for a drug cartel. According to what we see in the movie, he was paid very well. A shot of him looking at his pay packet after one run appears to show $20,000, with 4 bundles of what look like 50 $100 bills. And after his first run, he was able to buy a new truck, which did not look like a budget model. After another, he gets his house out of foreclosure and then donates $25,000 to rebuild a popular restaurant which had been partially destroyed by a fire and so on.
So my question is this – do drug cartels really pay their mules that well? I wouldn’t have thought so, but what do I know about the illegal drug trade. FWIW, the movie is based on a true story.
seven separate trips to transport more than 1,200 kilograms of cocaine across the country and into Michigan, for which he was paid more than $1 million by a major Mexican drug cartel.
[When he was arrested] Sharp was in possession of 200 kilograms (440 lb) of cocaine
Drugs are trafficked is so many ways, it’s hard to generalize.
By analogy, how much does the cashier/sales clerk who rings up perfume or cologne earn? Some are at ultra posh boutiques staffed by models, guarded by men in sport coats and require appointments to keep me & you out, I see fragrances at flea markets & street stall, some are at casinos malls in Macao, some at at Macy’s, others on Ebay or TJ Maxx, etc.
I think the profits on illicit drug sales are so enormous that if the old white guy portrayed in the Clint Eastwood movie successfully avoids the authorities through seeming innocuous, he’s well worth it.