mule
n. countablen. a person who is paid to carry illegal drugs from one country to another. This is a very dangerous and illegal job.
n. a person who smuggles contraband, typically narcotics, across a border for a third party. Often used in criminal justice contexts to describe low-level participants in a trafficking network.
The police arrested a drug mule at the airport.
Customs officers are trained to spot a mule by looking for signs of extreme nervousness or inconsistent travel stories.
The investigation revealed that the cartel recruited a desperate student to act as a mule, promising a large sum for transporting the package across the border.
From Middle English mule, from Anglo-Norman mule and Old English mūl, both from Latin mūlus, from Proto-Indo-European *mukslós. Compare Late Latin muscellus (“young he-mule”), Old East Slavic мъшкъ (mŭškŭ, “mule”), Ancient Greek (Phocian) μυχλός (mukhlós, “he-ass”), and German Maul Maultier, Maulesel (through Latin).
From Middle French mule (“backless slipper”), from Medieval Latin mula (“slipper, shoe with a thick sole”), presumably from classical Latin mulleus, the dyed shoe of either the patricians or senators, from mūllus (“red mullet”) + -eus (“-y: forming adjectives”), from Ancient Greek μύλλος (múllos).
Often appears in the compound phrase 'drug mule'.