Tag Archives: gangs
Mexico sees rise in gangs, vigilantes recruiting children
One day after a vigilante group revealed that it was using children as young as 8 as “recruits” for armed defense patrols, Mexico’s president said Thursday that drug cartels too are recruiting ever-younger kids. The whole issue has sparked a debate in Mexico over the use of children in armed confrontations, with rights groups saying the practice threatens not only kids’ safety, but their mental health. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that because social programs are giving more youths opportunities to study or work, drug cartels are having trouble finding gunmen, leading them to recruit children.
Graft, gangs, bad conditions fuel Honduras prison killings
A top security official in Honduras said Monday the Mara Salvatrucha gang ordered prison riots that killed 37 inmates since Friday. Assistant Security Minister Luis Suazo said the gang known as MS-13 staged the bloody riots to force the government to back down from emergency measures decreed last week. “We have information that the MS is behind this and gave the orders to carry out these attacks,” said Suazo.
Smash and grab: Crime gangs prey on Hong Kong protests
The Hong Kong seller of luxury watches looked on in horror as masked men wielding the biggest sledgehammer he’d ever seen smashed through the door of a neighboring watch store, held a machete to the owner’s throat, scooped up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of timepieces, and then scattered into the city’s maze of streets. This time, the watch merchants of Kowloon fought back.
Mexico's drug gangs churning out deadly fentanyl-laced pills: DEA
Mexico’s cartels have for years diversified into a wide variety of illicit activity, helped by porous domestic law enforcement agencies as well as long-standing trafficking routes into the United States, their biggest market. Meanwhile, opioid deaths in the United States have soared over the last two decades, driving a wave of government-backed efforts to disrupt illegal distribution and treat addicts. The DEA said that 27% of a sample of counterfeit pills tested in the United States during the first three months of this year contained potentially lethal doses of fentanyl.
Driven from Central America by gangs and finding refuge in Kentucky: One woman's story
Hells Angels, street gangs vow to defend mosques as New Zealand braces for Friday prayers
How Frats, Teams And Gangs Divide, Conquer And Now Judge America
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