Mexican Cartels Lure American Teens as Killers

[babylonsister]

Mexican Cartels Lure American Teens as Killers

Michael Stravato for The New York Times

Rosalio Reta, 19, serving 70 years in a Texas prison, paid a fellow inmate to tattoo his face. Mr. Reta and his friend Gabriel Cardona, 22, are serving what amount to life terms.

By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
Published: June 22, 2009

LAREDO, Tex. — When he was finally caught, Rosalio Reta told detectives here that he had felt a thrill each time he killed. It was like being Superman or James Bond, he said.

“I like what I do,” he told the police in a videotaped confession. “I don’t deny it.”

Mr. Reta was 13 when he was recruited by the Zetas, the infamous assassins of the Gulf Cartel, law enforcement officials say. He was one of a group of American teenagers from the impoverished streets of Laredo who was lured into the drug wars across the Rio Grande in Mexico with promises of high pay, fancy cars and sexy women.

After a short apprenticeship, the young men lived in an expensive house in Texas, available to kill whenever called on. The Gulf Cartel was engaged in a turf war with the Sinaloa Cartel over the Interstate 35 corridor, the north-south highway that connects Laredo to Dallas and beyond, and is, according to law enforcement officials, one of the most important arteries for drug smuggling in the Americas.

The young men all paid a heavy price. Jesus Gonzalez III was beaten and knifed to death in a Mexican jail at 23. Mr. Reta, now 19, and his boyhood friend, Gabriel Cardona, 22, are serving what amounts to life sentences in prisons in the United States.

Other young Americans in their circle who the police say worked for the Zetas have also ended up in prison, have fled into hiding in Mexico or have disappeared in the permanent way that people wrapped up in the Mexican drug trade tend to go missing.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/us/23killers.html?_r=1&hp

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. It's a fascinating article. nt

[proteus_lives]

2. Are we supposed to feel sorry for Mr. Reta?

This is a story as old as civilization. Young man seeks easy wealth, power and women. Becomes scum and turns to stealing and murder.

Mr. Reta is getting exactly what he deserves.

There are millions of people who grow up poor/on the wrong side of whatever without becoming murderers.

[babylonsister]

3. You can if you'd like. I don't. nt