Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
.

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

From Hawk To Hitman: How Criminal Gangs Recruit Youths To Their Ranks

"Guerrero" for Borderland Beat


[SOME OF YOU KNOW ME AS PARRO WITH A SPECIAL ATTENTION TO GUERRERO.  NOW SOME YOU WILL KNOW THAT I RE-BRANDED MYSELF.  YOU WILL START SEEING BOLD CONTEXT AND SARCASTIC COMMENTS.  SORRY, JUST DONT HAVE A FOURM I CAN POST TO YET.  IN PREVIOUS POSTS IN THE ARCHIVES, FALCONES AND HALCONES WERE NUMBERED AT OVER 400,000.  KIDS ON THE ROOFS WATCHING, REPORTING TRAFFIC, WITH UNIQUE BAND ON WALKIE-TALKIES.  WATCHING LOADS IN THE PLAZA AND SECURITY MOVEMENTS.  ANOTHER PIECE OF REPORTING ON THE PLAZA AND THE POLICIA WITH TIES TO OTHERS OR AGAINST THESE]

Study finds voluntary recruitment is common, no surprise when take-home pay can be 35,000 pesos a month.

Eduardo was a cartel lookout at 13, selling drugs at 15 and trained to become a hitman a short time later. Unfortunately, his story is far from unique: approximately 30,000 minors work for organized crime gangs, according to the Network for Children’s Rights in Mexico (REDIM).

The testimonies of 67 of them are compiled in a new report by Reinserta, a civil society organization that helps ex-prisoners reintegrate into society.

Presented by the organization on Wednesday, Boys, girls and adolescents recruited by organized crime details how criminal organizations recruit young people and outlines reasons why some youths are susceptible to recruitment.



Based on studies conducted in Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas (the northern zone); México state and Guerrero (the central zone); and Oaxaca and Quintana Roo (the southern zone), the report states that adolescents are recruited either voluntarily or forcibly.

In the former case, a young person might be invited by a friend to join a gang to which he or she already belongs. Alternatively, youths might take it upon themselves to approach a criminal organization and ask to join its ranks.

The organization’s study identified four factors that can make minors more susceptible to recruitment: their family and psychological situation, their level of education, their socio-economic situation and their cultural background.

Young people whose family life is unstable, for example, or who have been abandoned or neglected by their family are more likely to join a criminal gang. Minors disinterested in their studies or who have already left school are also more likely to accept an offer to become a member of a criminal organization.

Boys, girls and adolescents are frequently recruited in urban and rural communities where violence is so common it is normalized, the report said. Cartels in the northern zone pay their underage members up to 35,000 pesos (US $1,700) a month, making a life of crime particularly attractive to young people who may lack life’s most basic necessities.

In the case of Eduardo (a pseudonym used by Reinserta to protect his identity), members of the Northeast Cartel recruited him at the age of 13 to work as a halcón (hawk), as a lookout is colloquially known. Two years later he was selling drugs on the streets and was in charge of other lookouts as the cartel’s chief hawk in the area he worked. Two months after becoming the jefe de halcones (Boss of the Falcones), Eduardo sought another promotion to become a sicario, or cartel hitman, Reinserta said.

Known as the Tropa del Infierno (Hell’s Army), the cartel unit to which he belonged provided weapons and combat training to young recruits – a heady experience for budding capos not long out of primary school.

Eduardo’s cartel experience came to an end after he was arrested on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to two years in a juvenile detention center in Coahuila. The youth, who spoke to Reinserta after serving nine months, said he wants to start a new life when he is released but is fearful of what might happen to him and his family if he doesn’t rejoin the Northeast Cartel.


“… I’m afraid that the cartel will look for me and if they find me I don’t know what I’ll do. … If they find you you can’t tell them, ‘I don’t want to do it anymore,’ you have to join because [if you don’t] they’ll beat the shit out of you, at the very least. It’s more likely they’ll put a bullet in your head,” Eduardo said.

Presenting the report, Reinserta co-founder Saskia Niño de Rivera cited REDIM data that showed that 20,000 minors have been murdered and 7,000 have disappeared over the past 20 years. Many of those killed likely had links to or were members of criminal gangs.

President López Obrador asserts that his government’s social programs, especially the “Youths Building the Future” apprenticeship scheme, help steer young people away from a life of crime, but Reinserta believes there is a lack of public policies to combat organized crime’s recruitment of boys, girls and teenagers. The consequences of the policy vacuum, the organization said, include the abduction and even murder of minors.

Those who are arrested before they meet one of those fates face the possibility of being tortured while detained, Reinserta said, noting that the practice was detected in juvenile detention centers in all three zones where it conducted its study. Consequently, it is not just criminal groups that violate minor’s human rights but also the authorities, the organization said.

With reports from Milenio and EFE 

16 comments:

  1. Wow..wonder if other crime groups around the globe can compete with this cartel mfs

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well Jimmy Hoffa yes, there is the Russian Mafia, then you have the Japanese Yakuza.

      Delete
  2. $35,000 pesos a month I don’t believe that. I remember reading articles in the past and I’m sure the pay was a lot smaller than that. I will look it to this today. But for sure they don’t get that much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I heard a rumour it's about $900 pesos a week.

      Delete
    2. Da Paisa
      Read today's Mexico News Daily,
      It's article vis also showing $35,000 pesos, which we all know is exaggerated.

      Delete
    3. I remember reading articles about salaries for regular sicarios and it was like 10 to 12 thousand a month and obviously there are exceptions. Some sicarios can make thousands of dollars. But common sicarios don’t make that much. Killing is cheap in Mexico. I do remember the Texas sicario kids. The were making a lot of money. But they will kill on both sides of the border.

      Delete
  3. Paisa, yes, that is definitely not the normal pay out. From what I know if they are on a salary and not per hit basis, sicarios make $200-250 a month. But, I just looked up this article in Reinstata and according to the study and interviews with young kids (exaggerating 14 yr old/ fibbing?) this is what they gathered. But, highly doubtful I agree

    ReplyDelete
  4. Apologies, original article is in REINSERTA.COM available for download in Spanish.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would love to see all of the reporters on BB put together a book. You all can write so well! Very interesting and informative. BB has educated me in a world that I never really knew that much about. Scary beyond my wildest dreams but oh so real. Thank you for your reporting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 🤔... I don't think you understand how BB works... They're not really reporters with maybe the exception of HEARST. For the most part the admins are contributors. They don't write articles for this site, they cite and translate articles from other websites, mostly mexican but a few from the U.S and abroad. Nonetheless they do a great job at finding these articles, translating and sharing them on this forum.

      Delete
    2. 9:36 They can still make a book, providing they input credit line source given. It does cost money to publish a book.

      Delete
    3. @9:36 There are actually some original articles filled with quick narratives explaining a few things. Oh, and then there’s the original video translations that you won’t find anywhere else. I have yet to see anyone do that elsewhere. Majority of people have a problem with profanity and so they tend to downplay what’s actually being said. But me I don’t hold back whatsoever.

      Delete
    4. Sol we love how translate article to English, also expert Manta reader.

      Delete
    5. So comical that people that have a problem with profanity would be on here.
      My favorite was the little Guatemalan looking fell'er methed out of his mind, AK in hand screaming repeatedly "Sit on my dick!! You fuck your Mothers! Sit on my dick!"
      I liked it so much that this is how I greet people in my everyday life. It's a great conversation icebreaker...
      I then go on a long winded conversation about the dangers that CJNG pose south of the border. PEOPLE LOVE ME...lol

      Delete

Comments are moderated, refer to policy for more information.
Envía fotos, vídeos, notas, enlaces o información
Todo 100% Anónimo;

borderlandbeat@gmail.com