Smugglers on the border have found big profits in little puppies that they sneak into the U.S. and sell. But what appears to be a bargain winds up breeding heartache for many buyers. The cute, cuddly puppies would have horror stories if they could talk.

"We're finding them stuffed into speaker boxes, taped underneath the seats, hidden away in duffle bags and shoved underneath other belongings," said Daniel DeSousa with the San Diego Animal Services Department.

Twenty-eight puppies were recently discovered in a vehicle stopped at a border crossing near San Diego. The border is the only thing standing between puppy peddlers and big profits. Each dog they can smuggle across from Mexico in a car or truck is worth hundreds more on the U.S. side.

Puppies that may sell for $50 in Mexico can bring hundreds of dollars in the U.S. But often there's a hidden cost for unsuspecting families who buy the dogs.

Jim Gagne and his wife bought a maltese puppy advertised in the newspaper. "We'd been going through some difficult times, health problems, myself and my wife," said Gagne. "We thought having another dog would bring us some joy." They paid $450 for the puppy. "We had the puppy at home a day," said Gagne. They rushed the sick puppy to the vet but it was dead two days later. Gagne said they spent nearly $2,000 dollars trying to save her.

But the smuggled puppies often have diseases. Many don't survive because they're too young to be taken from their mothers.

When one owner tried to contact the man who sold him a sick puppy, he said, "We found out his cell phone was a disposable cell phone."

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