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July 7 - Not your typical drug smuggler: Senior Citizens used as drug mules.

When we think of international drug smugglers, we likely imagine young, cash-starved men traveling across borders by car or on foot.  But sometimes, the reality is quite different.  As part of KSFR’s ongoing series of features on older Americans, reporter Mary Lou Cooper tackles the issue of senior citizens as unwitting drug mules. 

Today we begin with Part 1 of our report.  Mary Lou focuses on Operation Cocoon, a federal investigation into the recruitment of unsuspecting seniors to carry illegal drugs overseas.  Tomorrow, in Part 2 of this report, we’ll hear from the victims of such scams. 

Mary Lou Cooper reports on consumer issues for KSFR as well as on politics and elder affairs. She has worked for the U.S. Congress as well as for the Nevada and Tennessee legislatures, and remains a political junkie. She worked many years for an association of Western state legislatures and was a contributor to “Capitol Ideas,” a national magazine about state government. In 2016 Cooper received a public service award from the New Mexico Broadcasting Association for her KSFR story on Internet romance scams. She has received journalism awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and from the National Federation of 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 also holds fiction and screenwriting certificates from the University of Washington.