Mexican cartels ‘target young students in US’
Mexico's notorious drug cartels are looking across the border to the US to find new recruits, new reports suggest.
Younger recruits, often students, are being sought by the gangs in Mexico and these are being draughted in from places such as Texas, Fox News reports
Six of the seven largest drug cartels in Mexico have established control networks in the southern states of the US.
Dating back a few years, the threat of control has become more prominent in the past month as two Texas teens were lured to Mexico where they were kidnapped, beaten, ransomed and released in a remote area along the Rio Grande River.
It is thought that the students were lured to take part in violent acts of control and drug smuggling within Mexican towns and cities.
More than 25 juveniles were arrested for drug trafficking in one Texas border county in the past year, with some recruits as young as 12 years old
Kim Ogg, former gang task force director in Houston, Texas said: "Some see it [the gang] as their family. Some are attracted to the money, drugs, guns, women, and others are attracted because they have family members in gangs and it seems normal."
The cartels control the trafficking of drugs from South America to the US, a business that is worth an estimated $13 billion (£9 billion) a year, BBC News reports.
