You’ve probably heard of the term ‘drug mule’ and are aware of what it means.One of the most famous cases of someone acting as a drug mule in Ireland was our very own Michaella McCollum who spent time in a Peruvian jail after being caught smuggling 24 pounds of cocaine in her luggage, alongside her companion Melissa Reid.
Many of the recent cases of drug mules who are detected in Dublin airport involve financially disadvantaged women, often from South America, who can be promised as little as the equivalent of 2,000 for risking their lives and freedom to traffick drugs to Ireland.
Becoming a money mule on the other hand often does not involve concealing or ingesting anything, or even travel, but the problem is increasing as new Garda figures show.
The number of money-laundering arrests has increased tenfold in just seven years with the number of arrests in 2024 reaching 643, compared to 508 in 2023 and only 67 in 2018.
There were 341 arrests in the first half of 2025 alone which indicates that 2025 is likely to see more arrests than 2024.
These crimes are prosecuted under the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 and carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, although in some cases mules have avoided jail through suspended sentences as in the case of insurance salesman, Faruk Awolumate.
What are money mules and how do they operate?
Money mules are often recruited crime gangs like the Nigerian Black Axe who have hundreds of members active in the Republic of Ireland.
These mules are promised a cut of the money being laundered in exchange for providing access to their bank, post office, or credit union accounts to criminals who take advantage of the mules’ clean record to evade suspicion.
An Garda Síochána says that even if money mules are “not involved in the crimes which generate the money (cybercrime, payment and on-line fraud, drugs and human trafficking, etc.), they are acting illegally by laundering the proceeds of crime, helping criminal syndicates move funds easily around the world and remain anonymous.”
“If you are caught acting as a money mule, even if done so unwittingly, you can face a prison sentence, fine or community service, and the prospect of never again being able to secure a mortgage or open a bank account.” it said.
Not all money mules are recruited online
Gript previously reported on the case of Murilo Dos Santos (23) who was recruited as a money mule at a party by a man known to him as ‘Kendrick’.
Although Dos Santos was acknowledged to have not taken part in the higher level operations of the criminal organization he gave access to his accounts to, his account was used as part of a broader fraud operation by which €18,000,000 was stolen through “invoice redirection fraud”.
The court heard that there are currently 300 individuals either before the courts or under investigation in relation to Garda Operation Skein in circumstances where account details sent in emails are infiltrated and duplicate emails containing account numbers related to criminals are sent to unsuspecting victims.
Woman looking for love used as money mule by fake online boyfriend
In May this year, a Dutch woman living in Ireland appeared before the Circuit Criminal Court on charges of money laundering after a man, with whom she believed she was in a relationship for three years, asked her to allow him to transfer funds into her bank account.
The woman, who had sent the “US Army Marine” she knew as Philip Jones Ali approximately 25,000 of her own money over the course of their exclusively online relationship, received a conviction despite not being aware that the man she believed was her fiance was using her account to facilitate criminal activity
The woman’s account was used to launder €16,997.69 from the client of a construction company via invoice redirection fraud where valid looking invoices are sent to customers of a business from email addresses which are very slightly different from those used by the actual firm.
The romance scam victim received a one year jail sentence which was suspended for 3 years on condition that she pay back €7,000 to the man whose money had been stolen through invoice redirect fraud.
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