When the “gang game” becomes too real
Imagine if, instead of worrying about your child spending too much time on TikTok, you had to fear that they would be recruited to transport drugs in an armored monster. This is how stark the reality is in Sonora, where 344 children (yes, you read correctly, children) have been arrested this year for being sidekicks of organized crime. The age range? Between the ages of 10 and 12, that is, when they should be more interested in Minecraft than modifying vehicles for “combat” (a fancy term for “shootouts”).
The “bad kids” that no one wants on their team
According to Sergio Méndez, FGR delegate in Sonora (and probably the man with the most depressing job in the state), these “little boys”—as he calls them with a touch of bureaucratic tenderness—are recruited without understanding the consequences. That is, basically like when you accept the terms and conditions of an app without reading, but with bullets involved.
The most surreal thing is that some are not even local: they are imported from other states, as if organized crime were doing their own version of “Talent Pool”, but instead of soccer players, they look for preteens for their operations. Recruiter of the year? Probably a guy who trades candy for loyalty to a cartel.
Méndez, who since 2021 has tried not to lose his sanity in office, proposes tripling the penalties for those who recruit minors. Because, of course, if something works with organized crime, it is legal threats (said with as much sarcasm as possible). Meanwhile, parents are singled out for not “watching” their children, as if the problem were that they escaped from between their legs instead of a system that normalizes violence from the cradle.
From 22 to 344: when statistics are scarier than a jumpscare
In September of last year, Méndez reported 22 detained minors. Today, the number multiplied as if someone had applied a cheat code in GTA: 344 children with weapons, modified vehicles and zero concern for math homework. The macabre detail? Some operate in the northwest region, where the “big events” are not concerts, but confrontations between cartels.
And in case drama was missing, this coincides with the wave of violence in Sinaloa, where Los Chapitos and La Mayiza are fighting for the throne like in Game of Thrones, but with more narcocorridos and fewer dragons. The result: children used as pawns in a war they don’t even understand.
What’s next? Daycares with workshops on “How to avoid being recruited by a cartel”? Meanwhile, the numbers continue to rise, parents remain desperate, and organized crime continues to see children as disposable material. And we, as a society, continue scrolling as if it were not our problem.
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*Note: No children were consulted for this text, but I hope someone is listening to them in real life.
