Taiwan Sun
Tuesday 18th October, 2011
• Kids as young as 11 and 12 being recruited
• Drug cartels have command centres in every major city in Texas
• Intimidating US land owners on Rio Grande
The United States is the primary market for Mexico’s drug cartels, feeding the cycle of violence in the country as the state tries to suppress the violent gangs, but now Mexico’s war on the drug cartels may be spilling over into the United States.
Texas law enforcement officials have revealed that several Mexican cartels, including the extremely violent and ruthless Zetas, are recruiting teenagers on the US side of the border to help them in their smuggling operations.
“They call them ‘the expendables’,” said Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
According to McCraw, at least six major Mexican drug gangs have set up “command and control centres” in almost every major city in Texas and are actively recruiting children for their operations.
The kids, some as young as 11 and 12-years-old, are lured by the prospect of “easy money”, says McCraw. They’re paid US $50 for simple tasks, such as acting as lookouts, moving vehicles and running drugs.
Texas officials are extremely concerned by the developments and the state has joined the US Customs and Border Protection agency’s ‘Operation Detour’, which seeks to use community engagement to undermine the cartels.
Law enforcement officers meet with children and their parents in schools and at community centres to warn them about the dangers of what appear to be the easy money the Mexican drug gangs offer.
Texas officials have also warned that Mexico-based drug gangs are “intimidating landowners” in south Texas into allowing them to use their property as “permanent bases” for drug smuggling activity.
The cartels reportedly want to establish a “sanitary zone” on the US side of the Rio Grande, suggesting the Mexican drug war may be spilling over the border.
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