Cartels are recruiting migrants and women as hitmen

In Chihuahua, drug cartels have begun recruiting foreign migrants as hitmen, taking advantage of their mobility and vulnerability.

Local authorities have taken notice of this situation, as the Secretary of Government, Santiago de la Peña, acknowledged in an interview with an online media outlet that “not only are they prey to criminal groups, but we are starting to see the first examples of how these citizens from other countries, primarily Venezuelans recently, are joining the ranks of the cartels.”

Likewise, the Attorney General of the State, César Jáuregui, announced the arrest of a Salvadoran migrant as a “probable participant in the murder” of a state police officer.

The Prosecutor stated that shortly after the murder of the investigative agent José Iván Sandoval Lomas, “the capture of one of the two alleged shooters who participated in the crime was achieved, and it is an individual from El Salvador.”

This phenomenon is mainly occurring in Ciudad Juárez, as in the Tarahumara Sierra, cartels recruit Mexican migrants or young people seeking easy but deadly money.

That’s why, despite the constant executions and casualties from ongoing clashes between armed groups, recruiting new hitmen remains very easy for them.

Another significant factor in Ciudad Juárez is that cartels have hired women among their ranks, and it has become very common on this border that they execute a woman almost daily.

TYT Newsroom