Drug smuggling

Cartels recruiting high school students to smuggle drugs, people, into the US, feds say

A high school senior in Southern California was charged in federal court last week with recruiting his fellow classmates to smuggle drugs from Mexico to the United States, which federal officials say is part of a larger problem affecting the region.

Phillip Junior Webb, 18, was charged Monday with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and smuggling foreign nationals for financial gain, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"I can assure you Phillip Webb is not the only high school student recruiting other high school students," Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Walker-Hobson told Fox 5 San Diego.

Webb is accused of recruiting several high school students to smuggle methamphetamine and fentanyl into the U.S. on "multiple occasions" by having the minors strap the drugs onto their bodies as they attempted to enter the U.S. at the San Ysidro or Otay Mesa ports of entry, according to the criminal complaint.