WASHINGTON — President Trump was mocked by some when he suggested during a recent conversation with reporters that people standing next to a border wall could be harmed by drug smugglers throwing heavy bags of illegal narcotics over the barrier.

“As horrible as it sounds,’’ the president said, “when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don’t see them — they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It’s over.”

There have been no reports of anyone getting hit in the head by drug smugglers throwing large bags over a border wall. But as the federal government has increased the number of Border Patrol agents, drones, sensors, cameras and other technologies on the border with Mexico, drug cartels have been forced to become more creative.

Smugglers have used a variety of methods to get drugs across the border, according to interviews with agents from the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, congressional testimony and court records. About two million pounds of illegal drugs were seized by Customs and Border Protection last year, records showed.