MEXICO CITY: You can see their young eyes peering through face masks, or smirking with a high-powered weapon in their hands. They are known as child hitmen, and for Mexican drug cartels they are a disposable part of the narco trafficking business.
Mostly young males, the new breed of hitmen are both victims of cartels as well as “victimizers” for carrying out cartel violence, a report by the newswire service EFE said. And for many of the recruits who hail from impoverished backgrounds, the dangerous cartel life is the only one they know.
The use of adolescents and teens in the drug trade isn’t new, either. “El Ponchis” is one of the most well known youth hitmen to gain notoriety in Mexico. He confessed in 2010 to being a narco killer and was imprisoned for a few years until he was released and allowed to go to Texas. He had been part of cartel since he was 11 and by his early teens had decapitated four people, according to a confession he made about working with the Pacifico Sur drug gang.
Reports show that there are around 1,100 juveniles locked up in Mexican prisoners for murder. In all, some 5,000 youths are incarcerated for serious crimes that include weapons possession, kidnapping, car theft and involvement in organized crime.
