Its just obvious everytime they get caught is at the airport. For what they are paying the mules they could just hire a pilot to fly a small crop plane down there and fly low under the radar over the border coming back and throw the Bags out the window in a wooded area with a GPS on it. Then have the buyer go pick it up. Why even mess with airports if you don't have to?
shareI think the producers have so much of it that they're moving it every way they can think of. They don't care if an occasional mule gets caught. The first timer independents are idiots so they use the easiest and most obvious method as you noted- public transport.
shareThe ones they catch on the show usually look nervous because it is their first time or they look high.
sharePlus, many of the dealers don't have planes and such to move the drugs. It's cheaper & easier to find some idiotic "mule" to carry them. What got me was the episode where the thugs told the girl some kind of bag or whatever would keep the drugs from showing up on the X-ray. DUMB! The customs lady saw it as clear as day light!
Then too many times the dealers end up asking (or forcing) the "mule" to transport more drugs than originally agreed to. Always a bad move.