Puzzle #341 · May 8, 2026
drug mule
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Every day one two-word expression or compound word used in American English.
A drug mule is a person who smuggles illegal drugs across borders for a trafficker — taping packages to their body, hiding them in luggage, or swallowing sealed capsules (“body packing”) to evade airport screening.
The term comes from the pack animal: a mule is a strong, durable carrier bred from a donkey and a horse. The drug-smuggling sense was American west-coast underworld slang by 1935 and entered mainstream English in the 1980s as cocaine traffic from South America exploded.
Clint Eastwood's 2018 film The Mule dramatizes the real story of Leo Sharp, a WWII veteran in his 80s who became one of the Sinaloa Cartel's most prolific couriers, ferrying cocaine through the Midwest in his pickup truck.
The 2004 film Maria Full of Grace earned Catalina Sandino Moreno an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a Colombian teenager who swallows pellets of heroin to fly them into the U.S.
The term comes from the pack animal: a mule is a strong, durable carrier bred from a donkey and a horse. The drug-smuggling sense was American west-coast underworld slang by 1935 and entered mainstream English in the 1980s as cocaine traffic from South America exploded.
Clint Eastwood's 2018 film The Mule dramatizes the real story of Leo Sharp, a WWII veteran in his 80s who became one of the Sinaloa Cartel's most prolific couriers, ferrying cocaine through the Midwest in his pickup truck.
The 2004 film Maria Full of Grace earned Catalina Sandino Moreno an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a Colombian teenager who swallows pellets of heroin to fly them into the U.S.
Puzzle Appearances
The expression drug mule has appeared in 1 puzzle:
- Puzzle #341 on May 8, 2026
Rate of Appearance in English Language Print
Google's Ngram project shows how often a pair of words has appeared in print every year since the 1800's.
Data from Google Books Ngram Viewer. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
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