SAN DIEGO
A federal judge sentenced Phillip Junior Webb, 20, to 46 months in prison trying to smuggle Chinese and Mexican nationals into the U.S., according to officials.
He also recruited juveniles in high school to be drugs mules, according to authorities.
According to the evidence, the offense Webb was an 18-year-old high school senior who recruited other high school students to smuggle methamphetamine and/or fentanyl into the United States on multiple occasions.
In each instance, the juveniles had drugs strapped on their bodies as they attempted to enter the U.S. at the San Ysidro or Otay Mesa Ports of Entry, according to authorities.
In May 2018 Defendant Webb was caught attempting to bring a Chinese national and a Mexican national into the United States in the trunk of his vehicle.
In July 2018, Webb pleaded guilty in federal court to charges that he recruited classmates to smuggle methamphetamine and fentanyl.
The Los Angeles Times reported that investigators said Webb, a U.S. citizen who lived in Tijuana, was recruiting Castle Park High School classmates to strap methamphetamine and fentanyl to their bodies and walk into the U.S. at the San Ysidro or Otay Mesa ports of entry.
Authorities said the scheme was part of a growing, troubling trend over the past few years in which drug traffickers use high school students to move small loads of narcotics across the border, according to the L.A. Times. Authorities say the kids most often recruited are frequent border crossers — typically Mexican citizens with border crossing cards who attend school in the U.S., often in districts near the border.
“We cannot allow drug cartels to cavalierly recruit our youth to smuggle potent methamphetamine and fentanyl drugs into our nation, thereby endangering our teens and contributing to our country’s addiction crisis,” said U.S. Attorney Robert S. Brewer, Jr. “We will stop this exploitation by bringing the full power of the justice system down on the recruiters who exploit these kids.”
“Violent Mexican cartels are making money by exploiting children in the United States and Mexico,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Karen Flowers. “Our children, naive to the dangers, are promised money in exchange for allowing cartel members to strap drugs on their bodies in the back alleys of Tijuana, often surrounded by gun-baring cartel members, and smuggle the drugs to the US.”
Adding, “What these children aren’t told is that these drugs are deadly and they are putting themselves at risk to be physically exploited or even killed. Phillip Webb coerced children with the lure of easy money and the Hollywood notion of a glamorized life of crime. His sentencing makes it clear that we will not stand by and let profiteers damage our children.”