In Part 1 of our ongoing series of reports on older Americans, KSFR reporter Mary Lou Cooper spoke the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) about an international scheme to turn unwitting senior citizens into drug mules. The federal Operation Cocoon investigation revealed that 144 older couriers were recruited by drug organizations to ferry illegal drugs overseas. The majority of these couriers were U.S. citizens. The average age of these senior drug mules was 59 and the oldest courier was 87 years old. Today, Mary Lou reaches out to two of the victims of these scams. The first, a retired pastor from Maine and the second a retired contractor from Arizona.
Mary Lou Cooper has reported for KSFR for over a decade, focusing on consumer issues, health, politics, and more. She is a former US Congressional staffer and remains a political junkie to this day. Cooper has received journalism awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Associated Press, National Federation of Press Women and New Mexico Press Women. She grew up in Oak Ridge, TN and received her BA from Emory University in Atlanta and her MA from the University of Texas Austin. She holds fiction and screenwriting certificates from the University of Washington.