Cartels Recruiting American Teens to Smuggle Drugs

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EL PASO - Customs and Border Protection officials say they're seeing more teenagers trying to smuggle drugs across the border. Officials say mostly American kids, girls and boys from middle and upper-class families, are being caught with drugs strapped to their bodies.

Authorities say the cartels are re-focusing on recruiting more children from American schools. Bil Molaski is the El Paso Port Director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and says, "Wherever they believe they can be successful or find a weak spot in our defense of the homeland, here, they're going to attempt to exploit that."

El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez adds, "We had a kid, here, who lost a load and had some of his toes chopped off." Officials say many of the teens are not aware of the risks.

Danny Santos says he was recruited and paid as much as $5,000 by the Juarez cartel to smuggle loads of drugs across the border. Santos says he was 15 when he started as a driver for a mid-level cartel member.

He says, "It was a friend who had a cousin, that knew a guy, and that's where it all started. People feel they can trust you right, so you move up to something bigger. I can't say I wasn't nervous. You just can't show it. You still know what you're driving, you still know what you're doing, American citizen and all that, you just have to forget you have something illegal in the car. Let's say they catch them all tomorrow. The day after tomorrow there's going to be 30 new ones."

Santos says he got lucky. He did about 20 runs and made it through customs checkpoints at the border most of the time. He says he was only arrested once and served little jail time. Santos says he already spent most of the money he made working for the cartels.

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