Sneak of the Month: Children, Teens Recruited as Drug Mules in ...

Illegal drugs found taped to the body of a minor caught at the U.S. border. The teen was being used as a ?mule? by the Mexican drug cartels./NBC San Diego 7

NBC7 in San Diego reported that Mexican drug cartels are aggressively recruiting children and teens to smuggle drugs across the border. Federal authorities are alarmed at what appears to be an increase in children as young as 12 being used as drug mules.

Not only are the drug cartels using these children to traffic marijuana, but now increasingly the drug of choice is methamphetamine. Traditionally, drug cartels recruit the kids with tales of easy money and the taunt that as a minor, even if caught, the penalties would be inconsequential. The average mule makes between $75 and $300 for crossing the border with approximately 6 kilograms taped?to their bodies. And, if caught with heavy narcotics, like meth, these minors will end up with felonies on their criminal record, not just a slap on the wrist.

The drug cartels are recruiting children outside schools and malls and reaching teens by using social media. In 2011, records show 190 children (ages 18 and under) were caught smuggling drugs along the?San Diego County-Mexico border.

This border sector includes over 7,000 square miles including 60 linear miles of international boundary with Mexico and 114 coastal border miles along the Pacific Ocean patrolled by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). Directly south of San Diego lie the Mexican cities of Tijuana and Tecate, Baja California, which have a combined population of more than four and a half million people.

?The drug cartels? shift to using kids and teens as a high reward, low risk method of trafficking drugs across our nation?s border is something hard for most Americans to imagine, unless you know how violent, ruthless, and amoral the cartels are,? said U.S. Border Security Council National Spokesman Steve LeBlanc. ?Our country?s border security is under fire as never?before with some of our nation?s?most precious resources ? our children ? caught in the crosshairs.?

U.S. Border Security Council is a national grassroots advocacy group, which the IRS has determined to be tax-exempt under the provisions of Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. You can reach organization by mail at P.O. Box 96197, Washington, DC 20090 or by email at info@usbordersecurity.info

Source: http://usbordersecurity.info/sneak-of-the-month-children-teens-recruited-as-drug-mules-in-record-numbers

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