Education

Teen Charged For Smuggling Drugs And Illegals Into US With Help From High Schoolers

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Police say a San Diego high school student smuggled drugs and two illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, ABC News reports.

He has been charged with human smuggling and conspiracy to distribute illicit narcotics and was arraigned in federal court Monday. The student is 18-year-old Phillip Junior Webb.

Two illegals who were discovered in the trunk of Webb’s car trying to come into the U.S. have been identified as Ming Lin from China and Jose Carmen from Mexico.

The students Webb recruited, all minors, told authorities that the 18-year-old entrepreneur “promised” to pay each of them around $300 to $500 to help him smuggle fentanyl and methamphetamine into the U.S. from Mexico.

According to ABC, one of the students lured into Webb’s sketchy operations “claimed they had already completed as many as 20 drug runs for Webb and another told police that Web threatened him when he tried to pull out of the operation, the charging documents said.”

U.S. Attorney Adam Braverman said in a statement, “We are seeing a very troubling trend and we want to warn parents and high schoolers. Our youth are being recruited by drug cartels to smuggle dangerous drugs across the border.”

Webb is scheduled to appear in court on May 10.