# Drug cartels and payment **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 2, 2025, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-cartels-and-payment/1025343 "2025-12-02T23:18:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cachalot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@Cachalot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cachalot)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-cartels-and-payment/1025343/1 "2025-12-02T23:18:31Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-cartels-and-payment/1025343/2 "2025-12-02T23:49:34Z")
Just glancing at the wiki page for the movie, as well as the page of the person it was based on (Leo Sharp), this wasn’t a ‘swallow 10 condoms full of cocaine’ mule, he was moving hundreds of pounds at a time getting paid quite well for it. [https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2014/05/07/ninety-year-old-drug-trafficker-sentenced-three-years-prison-transporting](https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2014/05/07/ninety-year-old-drug-trafficker-sentenced-three-years-prison-transporting) > 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. > **[Leo Sharp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Sharp)** > > Leo Earl Sharp Sr. (May 7, 1924 – December 12, 2016), also known as El Tata, was an American World War II veteran, horticulturist, and drug courier for a branch of the Sinaloa Cartel. > Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Jeff Moore arrested Sharp in 2011 and was interviewed by The New York Times writer Sam Dolnick regarding the investigation into the world's oldest drug mule. > Sharp was born in Michigan City, Indiana, and was raised in the city of Detroit, Michigan. > Sharp fought in the... > [When he was arrested] Sharp was in possession of 200 kilograms (440 lb) of cocaine > **[The Mule (2018 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mule_(2018_film))** > > The Mule is a 2018 American crime drama film starring and directed by Clint Eastwood, and produced by Eastwood, Dan Friedkin, Jessica Meier, Tim Moore, Kristina Rivera, and Bradley Thomas. The screenplay, written by Nick Schenk, is based on the 2014 The New York Times article "The Sinaloa Cartel's 90-Year-Old Drug Mule" by Sam Dolnick, which recounts the story of Leo Sharp, a World War II veteran in his 80s who became a drug courier for the Sinaloa Cartel. > The film co-stars Bradley Cooper, La... > In the middle of a $12 million cocaine shipment ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-cartels-and-payment/1025343/3 "2025-12-03T15:14:24Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-cartels-and-payment/1025343/4 "2025-12-03T18:10:48Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Xocomil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xocomil/32/14927_2.png) [@Xocomil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xocomil)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2025, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-cartels-and-payment/1025343/5 "2025-12-03T19:00:47Z")
I can’t imagine that there’s a lot of posh boutique drug muling going on. Do you an example, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2025, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-cartels-and-payment/1025343/6 "2025-12-03T19:04:16Z")
Sure, celebrity entourages. Tour buses. Green rooms. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-cartels-and-payment/1025343/7 "2025-12-04T03:08:13Z")
I don’t have a cite to back any of this up, but several years ago I recall hearing that mules coming in through California ports of entry were being paid an average of about $1500 for an average load of about 100 pounds of product. Meth and coke get a higher compensation than, say, marijuana so I imagine there is a significant variation around that $1500. Some other interesting info I remember is that US citizens were not paid more than Mexican citizens, and women were not paid more than men. ---
**Author:** ![Xocomil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xocomil/32/14927_2.png) [@Xocomil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xocomil)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-cartels-and-payment/1025343/8 "2025-12-04T04:05:03Z")
Ah, gotcha ya.