Are drug cartels actually recruiting Valley youths?

McALLEN — Laredo residents Gabriel Cardona and Rosalio Reta became hit men for the Zetas drug cartel before they could legally get a driver’s license.

The Texas Department of Public Safety highlighted the duo in a press release last week warning parents that Mexican cartels and transnational gangs are actively recruiting youths from Texas schools.

But evidence about whether the Zetas and other cartels are directly ramping up efforts to recruit Texan youths — anecdotally or statistically — remains spotty at best, especially in the Rio Grande Valley.

"Locally, I’ve never heard of this," Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said last week. "I really would like to see the anecdotal evidence that supports this allegation."

DPS officials believe the Mexican cartels are directly recruiting youth from Texas communities and schools to join their ranks, smuggling drugs and people — or, in the case of Cardona and Reta, to act as assassins, Mange said.

"They are trying to increase their numbers and they are pursuing different routes to do that," DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said of the cartels Monday.

However, Cardona and Reta were not recruited in between classes at high school. The pair became involved with the Zetas after they were recruited at Nuevo Laredo nightclubs, police said.

"Their whole issue was they became disenfranchised," said Joe Baeza, a Laredo police investigator and department spokesman. "They were kind of growing up on the streets — that type of deal."

Reta murdered for the first time when he was 13. Cardona was a year older.

Both went on to careers with the Zetas, killing dozens before Laredo police arrested each teen in 2006.

DPS also points to instances in El Paso where teens have been recruited to smuggle drugs across from Ciudad Juarez, where more than 2,000 people have been killed this year from drug-related violence.

It is "common practice" for Valley-based criminal gangs to recruit teens, beginning in junior high school, Sheriff Treviño said.

"That is when the kids become impressed with the gang lifestyle — their slang, their dress, their music," he said. "We have known this for years and that is why we have a lot of anti-gang programs in the schools."

And some of the street gangs that traffic drugs through the area have connections to the drug cartels, the sheriff said. But little evidence exists — statistically or anecdotally — as to whether the cartels have directly targeted Valley youth.

"I really would like to see it," Sheriff Treviño said. "Maybe (DPS is) keeping a secret from me and everybody else."

When asked if DPS had uncovered any further instances of cartels recruiting Valley youths, statistically or anecdotally, Mange said she would "have to get back to you on that."

One recent fatality — a 17-year-old man who died after a rollover during a police chase Nov. 8 near Alto Bonito — may serve as an example of a teen recruited to smuggle drugs, federal authorities said. La Grulla police found 568 pounds of marijuana inside the teen’s truck, which overturned in a field.

Investigators have not determined how long the teen smuggled drugs, or whether he died during his first trip.

Despite the seemingly isolated instances of teens working directly with the cartels, authorities say they are trying to be proactive by reaching out to teenage students before the cartels do — if they even are.

In September, the Border Patrol launched "Operation Detour," a presentation that brings authorities to schools to show teens the consequences of hooking up with the cartels.

La Joya school district police Chief Raul Gonzalez said he applauds the presentation — an effort to prevent youths from joining gangs or cartels, should they ever face the choice.

"When you’re involved with them, there’s only one way out — and that’s death," he said. "Unless you get arrested."

Local Border Patrol spokesman Joe Treviño said the Detour presentation has garnered warm receptions at most schools in the Valley — with more than 47,300 students in 28 school districts participating. He added that agents have noticed an increase in cartel recruitment among youths, but Border Patrol doesn’t keep any "specific or hard numbers" on the matter.

DPS director Steven C. McCraw said much of the responsibility lies with parents to watch their children and whether they are becoming involved with criminals.

"As these dangerous organizations seek to co-opt our children to support their criminal operations, it is more important than ever that parents be aware of these risks, talk to their children and pay attention to any signs that they may have become involved in illegal activities," McCraw said in the statement.

That advice does offer something parents can heed — even if cartels recruiting kids remains isolated and not a growing trend, Sheriff Treviño said. "We’ve always said that if you don’t talk to your children, somebody else will," he said.