A popular method to smuggle drugs into Northwest Indiana has been uncovered: paying teenagers to carry them onto the South Shore.

A year-long operation has revealed that dealers in the Windy City were paying teens to transport drugs to and from Chicago on the South Shore.

Officers with the LaPorte Metro Operations Unit say the popular train was frequently used to move cocaine and heroin, and the sellers would appear as typical commuters with the narcotics hidden in their baggage.

Rail police and local departments have been intercepting people transporting drugs.

Fifteen have been arrested, and another 15 have been identified this year alone.