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"Just let 'em go and they'll be dead within the year."

Why would they be dead within a year? For getting busted? I wonder why everyone thinks that. My guess is people watch too much TV. In real life people who get busted aren't likely to be killed by the organization that hired them unless they start rolling over on the organization. When they do that they are putting their lives and the lives of their families in serious jeopardy. If it were standard practice to kill these "farm hands" and the mules who carry drugs or money just because they get popped by the police, these people would be far more likely to help the police get the higher ups because they'd have nothing to lose. At least they'd have a chance at getting police protection, even getting paid, if they were to start working for law enforcement. They don't tend to get any help from the organization that hired them if they get busted though. These organizations don't bond these people at the bottom of the totem pole out of jail or hire them lawyers, but they don't kill them just for getting busted. Losing a load of dope or a patch of pot plants, or even a load of cash, that's all just part of the normal costs of business to these people. They don't like it, but they make tons of money on all the loads that get through, the patches of pot that aren't seized, and they insulate themselves from getting busted by having layers of expendable people down below them who have little knowledge about the workings of their organizations, and who are unlikely to start talking about what they do know because they know what is liable to happen to them and their families if they do. Of course if these people thought they were going to be killed anyway, the organization wouldn't have so much leverage over them.

You're somewhat correct as to how the cartels 'reward' and/or 'punish' the flunkies that get caught.

But I do recall one female, about twenty who was transporting a trunk full of cash. Alas, she got drunk/high and stopped.
The Mexican cartel bailed her for cash ...

They then used propane (?) torches to rearrange her skin.

They left her hands alone so the corpse could be fingerprinted and they could get the bail exonerated.
They're really nice guys ;^)