Alejandro Hope said the recruitment reflected how openly the gang dared to act. “This speaks of the impunity, of their operating almost openly,” said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst in Mexico City.
A public recruitment drive by a Mexican drug cartel using fliers promising high wages and good benefits reflects the expanding power of the gang, experts said Friday.
The recruitment fliers advertised jobs as security guards or bodyguards under the name of a fake company, and promised good benefits, a Christmas bonus and “growth in the short term,” according to Jesus Eduardo Almaguer, the chief prosecutor in western Jalisco state.
Those recruited were, however, employed as street-level drug dealers, not guards. They were sent to the town of Lagos de Moreno for a quick 10-day training course featuring paintball fights.
While prosecutors did not name the gang, experts said Friday it is without doubt the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Almaguer tried to depict the recruitment as a sign of the success of government raids against the gang. Speaking of the recruits — about a dozen were arrested earlier this week — Almaguer said “these people said they had been taken to Lagos de Moreno to substitute for people who had been retiring, or who had been fleeing from government raids.”
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