Thread: Accused teen hitman's family hard hit by drugs, crime

Accused teen hitman's family hard hit by drugs, crime

By Morgan Lee, Tanya Sierra and Janine Zúñiga
Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 3:32 p.m.

A teenager captured international headlines this month after admitting that he beheaded people for a Mexican drug cartel while under the influence of narcotics. Fourteen years ago, that same boy began his life in San Diego with cocaine in his system.

Edgar Jimenez Lugo’s arrest and confession show what can happen when children — especially orphans or those from unstable families — become involved in the drug underworld. It’s a problem authorities on both sides of the border are fighting.

More than 32,000 people have died in Mexico since President Felipe Calderón launched an unprecedented war on that nation’s drug traffickers and organized crime in 2006.

Still, many Mexicans were stunned by the specter of child recruits being used as hitmen for cartels, said Ursula Oswald, an analyst of social vulnerabilities at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Cuernavaca.

“Everybody suspected but wasn’t sure this existed, until you have this case,â€

ABOUT THIS REPORT
The story of 14-year-old Edgar Jimenez Lugo involves the sensitive issues of when to name minors, including those accused of a crime, and when to grant sources anonymity.

In all stories involving juveniles accused of crimes, the Union-Tribune weighs carefully when to use their names. In general, if they are charged as adults, the newspaper publishes their names. Other considerations include the severity of the crimes and whether authorities have publicly named the suspects.

Edgar was arrested in Mexico, where the laws governing juveniles differ from those in the United States. He cannot be charged as an adult in the Mexican legal system. The Mexican government, however, named him and two of his sisters, who are 19 and 23, when the military arrested them.

For those reasons, the newspaper is naming them.

The newspaper is not, however, identifying any of Edgar’s other siblings. They have not been accused of crimes and some are minors. Also, in a situation that deals with violent drug traffickers, naming them could put them at risk.

Those same considerations led to the newspaper’s decision not to use the names of some sources in San Diego and Mexico who gave information about Edgar and his family.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... ugs-crime/

I think that deporting the illegals and closing the border would be a quick way to end the drug problems here.

I nominate them for:

ILLEGAL ALIEN FAMILY OF THE YEAR