From 11 To 18 Years Old: The Age Of Hitmen Who Fight For Control Of The Morelos Neighborhood

According to a specialist, the social and family context is one of the many factors that encourage young people to join drug cartels.

Criminal groups in Tepito are increasingly made up of younger criminals.

In the war for control of Tepito and the Morelos neighborhood, children and adolescents have been used by the Union and Anti-Union mobs, and at least a dozen young people between 11 and 18 years old have been killed in the last two months due to the struggle for territory between the two groups.

These adolescents extort, deal drugs and murder, among other activities. Such is the case of Deymar Vallejo, aka El Chicha, who was 15 years old and was killed on September 22 after crashing into a car while trying to flee from his attackers, who, upon seeing him on the ground, shot him multiple times. 

On social media, Deymar showed photos carrying firearms with narco corridos as background music and images of him playing video games. 

After his death, close relatives said goodbye to him with loving messages: “I love you very much, I will always carry you in my heart as the great child you were, my child. Life without you will not be the same. I love you, until we meet again.”

Days earlier, in Circuito Interior, two other young men aged 19 and 17, respectively, were killed in the same way. The youngest of them, Ramses Campo, aka Rambo, had attacked two teenagers a week earlier, for which he was arrested. However, moments later he was released and subsequently shot down. 

In addition, last week, members of the Anti-Union mob shot Angelo Mendez, 19, after getting out of his gray car, whose image he posted on social media along with long weapons.

These deaths are added to those of Alexis Alvarez, Jose Juarez and Manuel Maya, all 18 years old, as well as two other young men over 20 years old in recent days.

When members of one of the two criminal groups die, rivals celebrate on social media with messages such as “not even the richest man got to eat, bread from him, that is, from the dead, hahaha.”

In addition, members of the Tepito Union, also through social media, threaten the partners of the murdered young people, warning that they will soon “accompany their deceased” with the legend “We are the absolute Uva gang,” in reference to the criminal group.

In addition to the deceased youths, some have been arrested, such as the leader of the UJ-40 group, Johan Gael ‘G’, 17 years old, who named his criminal group using the initials of the Tepito Union, his name and the number of the property where he lives, on Mecánicos Street, in the Morelos neighborhood.

This group of hitmen in service for the Tepito Union gang published photographs carrying weapons, where members such as El Muela, Marlon, Gael, Zuriel, Israel and their leader, Johan, who wore a cap with the image of the former leader of the Medellín cartel, Pablo Escobar, pointing their guns at the camera. Some wore hats and face masks, while others appeared without masking their faces.

According to Eunice Rendón, former general director of the National Prevention Center of the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), the social and family context is one of the many factors that encourage young people to join drug cartels.

“It’s very common for a family member or close relative to be in jail or have been, which influences the role models. Finally, this is also part of the phenomenon; it is a context plagued by risk factors,” she commented.

For example, she added, “children in the sport of boxing, from 10 to 13 years old, live in a very complex context. One goes to boxing, but his mother doesn’t pay attention to him, she is always drinking alcohol or is not at home. He only goes to tournaments; thanks to boxing he has maintained himself, but imagine that child without boxing,” she explained.

Rendón added that young people feel frustration for not having certain things, which triggers criminal acts in adolescents.

Because of their age, young people are less likely to resist crime. 

For her part, anthropologist Elena Azaola commented: “Because of their age, they are very young, immature, and do not measure the consequences; this is characteristic of that stage.”

“Neuroscientifically, it has recently been discovered that the brain does not finish maturing until after the age of 25.”

She added that young people do not see any other way to obtain goods. 

“They are less likely to resist because they have not matured enough; they are in a context in which these things are within reach.”

Source: Milenio