“It was like being the Super-Man or James Bond” said Rosalio Reta to the detectives who arrested him, boy who was only 13 years old when he was recruited by a Mexican drug cartels, called the Zetas, because of promises of good payments , expensive cars and sexy women. He was only one of many teenagers who were recruited by the cartels.

But young people paid a high price for it. Other American teenagers died, are in prison, are hidden or just “disappeared.”

Killings of drug traffickers involved in gangs wars – the type of service made by Reta – resulted in the death of thousands of people.

Most young American was recruited at the Eclipse nightclub in the main square of Nuevo Laredo, near the end of one of two bridges that connect Laredo to Dallas It is a dark setting in which young people drink, dance and flirt with the roar background of the music style known as reggaeton. But the cartel members are also on the lookout at the club, looking for possible recruits.

Cardona, another teenager from that cartel, was the brains of the group which lived in the same residence with another teenagers. Reta was eager to become a professional killer: he started to kill when he had 13 years old and committed at least murders 30 in the last years. After being arrested, he said to the police said that was “addicted” in killing people.

Now Reta, 19 years old, is in the state prison in Abilene, Texas, sentenced to 70 years in prison for two murders.

Via: NYT.