Cartel uses juvenile hitmen in US

Houston Chronicle:

“You should have been there,” Cardona, a 22-year-old Laredo high school dropout told a fellow member of the Gulf Cartel’s hitman squad in an April 10, 2006, conversation intercepted by federal agents. Eleven days earlier, Jorge “Poncho” Aviles, 19, and Inez Villarreal, 14, were abducted from a Nuevo Laredo nightclub and taken to an abandoned house south of the border, tortured, gutted and then burned in 55-gallon drums, according to recenty unsealed federal court records.

On the recording, Cardona said Aviles died first, after begging for his life.

The conversation with hitman Rosalio “Bart” Reta would become a key piece of evidence in a federal case that could land Cardona, who is already serving 80 years in prison for five murders, with a potential life sentence. The San Antonio native pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to kill and kidnap in a foreign country in August for the murders of Aviles and Villarreal and is to be sentenced this spring.

Cardona’s case is part of a 47-count indictment that has led to the arrests of 14 defendants employed by the Gulf Cartel, a dominant and ruthless drug syndicate. Thirteen of them, including Cardona, have pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Laredo in connection with the case against the cartel.

Four defendants are scheduled for sentencing Jan. 29. Nine more, including Cardona, are scheduled to be sentenced in April and May. The charges against one defendant were dismissed.

Though the federal case is considered a blow to the syndicate’s operations, some of the top leaders remain fugitives, including Miguel Angel Trevino, the alleged mastermind of seven murders laid out in the indictment.

New documents unsealed as part of the still-unfolding federal case for the first time detail the slayings of Aviles and Villarreal, and offer a glimpse at the inner workings of the Gulf Cartel. The records highlight a long-standing battle with the Sinoloa Cartel for control over the lucrative Interstate 35 smuggling corridor.

...

Cardona’s American-born hitman crew was dubbed “Zetillas,” slang for “little Zetas,” because of their ages. The youngest, at 16, was Reta, a Houston native. He is now a convicted murderer in Texas, and a suspect in multiple homicides in Mexico.

Jesse Guillen, a former Webb County prosecutor who handled multiple murder cases against the crew, said the American teenagers were potent weapons for the cartel, which was charged in the 47-count indictment with moving major loads of marijuana and cocaine north, often escorting the drugs up to Dallas.

“They blend in,” Guillen said of the hitmen. “They’re U.S. citizens. They speak fluent English. They’re able to follow shipments, and collect money for it. They’re able to drive up to Dallas and Houston without any problems.”

According to recently unsealed court records, the hitmen were paid $500 a week just to be on-call to kill, and up to $50,000 to carry out a double homicide. They drove fancy cars, were paid with cash and cocaine, and killed on command.

...

There is more.

The Houston Chronicle does one of the best jobs of any media in covering the violence in Mexico and that emanating from Mexico. Hiring kids as hit men has been depicted in the hit TV show The Wire. It is somewhat ironic that a wire on these guys help break the case. Now these guys get the waste the rest of their lives in prison.

The story does expose how the US is helping Mexico fight its criminal insurgency with lawfare. I wonder how many of the hit men on the other side of the border are juveniles.