Border Smugglers Use Social Media to Recruit Kids, Urge Reckless Driving to Evade Border Patrol; CBP Sounds Alarm on Criminal Gangs Recruiting Teens on Social Media to Smuggle Migrants

AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File

Border smugglers use social media to recruit kids, urge reckless driving to evade Border Patrol:

Smugglers are turning to social media to recruit kids to drive illegal immigrants — including some who were just 13 years old, the Border Patrol revealed.

The cartels dangle big paydays in front of the kids and assure them that because they’re juveniles, they won’t face severe consequences if they’re caught. The kids are also told that if they flee, agents will give up if a high-speed car chase becomes too risky for others on the road.

The result is a wave of inexperienced drivers taking huge risks, engaging in high-speed evasions and driving into oncoming traffic, the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector said in a new warning Wednesday.

“This is an alarming trend because many of these teenagers underestimate the severity of the crime,” said Brian S. Hastings, chief patrol agent for the sector.

Part of the problem is the smuggling organizations are right — the juveniles generally won’t face criminal consequences, according to Reymundo Del Bosque, the sheriff in Zapata County, Texas.

“Our juveniles are the ones driving, the ones in car chases, because the federal government is not charging them at all,” he told The Washington Times earlier this week. “We have juveniles driving through our town, and trafficking, being solicited through social media to pick up the bodies.” --->READ MORE HERE

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CBP sounds alarm on criminal gangs recruiting teens on social media to smuggle migrants:

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is seeing a growing trend of transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) using social media to recruit American teenagers to help them smuggle drugs, illegal immigrants and other illicit cargo into the United States.

In a release, CBP said agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector have encountered over 137,000 migrants between October and the end of December – a 163% increase over the same time in 2020. Additionally, it has seen a 43% increase in narcotics seizures.

With that enormous traffic, human smugglers have increasingly turned to social media to target young drivers to smuggle migrants.

"TCOs are luring minors to smuggle migrants across border towns in the Rio Grande Valley and into the U.S. interior with the promise of fast cash," CBP said. "TCOs convince juvenile drivers that they will not face the same consequences as adults if apprehended or that law enforcement will disengage a pursuit if dangerous conditions are present." --->READ MORE HERE

Follow link below to a related story:

DPS: A rise in social media by smugglers to lure minors for smuggling

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