Scam tricks travelers to carry illegal drugs

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - The scam e-mails come in constantly, some even use the names of United States Senators and one sounded very appealing to Daniel Seibert.

"I have been to 76 countries that I have worked in, I have never been to Dubai and I wanted to go," said Daniel Seibert.

Whoever he was communicating with promised him a trip from Tucson that would take him through Atlanta then to London with a stopover in Dubai, and eventually Japan where he was told a man had money for him. But there was a catch.

"He said you have to stop in the UK to get a package and then bring it to Japan," said Seibert.

That's where more than 100 people including many vulnerable adults have gotten into trouble. According to federal investigators the packages are sometimes filled with illegal drugs. ICE and Customs and Border Protection have worked with foreign governments to stop 145 travelers turned drug mules who werre carrying hundreds of kilograms of meth, cocaine, ecstacy, and heroin.

"It's a very troubling thing," he said.

In Washington there was a Senate hearing on the troubling new scam. Arizona Senator Jeff Flake is on the special committee on aging.

According to the Senator more than 40 Americans are in foreign jails after falling victim to the scam.