{"id":1095,"date":"2026-02-22T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T00:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2026\/02\/from-pablo-escobar-to-algorithm-this-is-html\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T00:15:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T00:15:00","slug":"from-pablo-escobar-to-algorithm-this-is-html","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2026\/02\/from-pablo-escobar-to-algorithm-this-is-html\/","title":{"rendered":"From Pablo Escobar to the Algorithm: This is How the Drug Cartels’ “Sophistication” Works to Recruit Minors in Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cSol Prendido\u201d for Borderland Beat\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Pablo Escobar recruited underprivileged children into the ranks of drug trafficking in 1989, and more than 30 years later, the Colombian’s method has become more sophisticated thanks to the efficiency of the social media algorithm, especially in Mexico, where drug cartels have become the country’s fifth-largest employer, warns one expert.<\/p>\n

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“Violent crime tends to be very adaptable to new technologies in different contexts. In the case of recruitment, the technological advancement of social media, which acts as a facilitator, is combined with appeals to emotional and identity-related dimensions,” researcher Rodrigo Pe\u00f1a explained to EFE.<\/p>\n

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To understand this sophistication in Mexico, Pe\u00f1a, along with a group of researchers from the Colegio de M\u00e9xico (Colmex), analyzed 100 TikTok accounts where drug cartels, primarily the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), have developed a \u201cdigital language\u201d using emojis, hashtags, and corridos tumbados (a type of Mexican folk song) to recruit members.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe know for certain that there are messages sent on behalf of criminal groups, as well as cases of young people who have responded to be recruited,\u201d he asserts regarding this process, in which the cartel can offer recruits up to 15,000 pesos per week (US$875), while the minimum wage in the country is 315 pesos (US$18.30) per day.<\/p>\n

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One example of this language is the use of emojis, which allows the cartels to differentiate themselves.<\/p>\n

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Pizza is associated with “Chapizza,” a reference to the Sinaloa Cartel faction led by Joaqu\u00edn “El Chapo” Guzm\u00e1n, while the rooster is linked to Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho” or “The Lord of the Roosters,” leader of the CJNG.<\/p>\n

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Filter Bubbles<\/p>\n

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With this “sophistication of language” and the “algorithm’s filter bubbles,” Pe\u00f1a warns that drug trafficking is reaching an audience that was previously inaccessible, since this content captures an “audience” that transcends national and socioeconomic boundaries, potentially reaching young people of any social class and educational level.<\/p>\n

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In this regard, he recalls the case documented by The New York Times, in which chemistry students were recruited by the Sinaloa Cartel to work as fentanyl cooks.<\/p>\n

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To explain how the algorithm keeps users trapped in content generated by criminal organizations, researchers are using the concept of \u201cfilter bubbles.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pe\u00f1a explains that these bubbles group people in an ecosystem based on their interactions, and that the danger, especially on TikTok, is \u201cthe difficulty of escaping them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The academic argues that the user’s continued presence in these bubbles has changed the \u201cnarrative of recruitment,\u201d since now it is young people who are seeking to be recruited, an aspect they are analyzing in a second study, to be published this year.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe analyzed a large number of responses and interactions in the videos, where young people ask to be recruited, writing messages like: \u2018I\u2019m interested,\u2019 \u2018I want a job,\u2019\u201d the expert describes.<\/p>\n

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New forms of violence<\/p>\n

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Pe\u00f1a cannot say for sure how fast this problem is growing in Mexico, but he guarantees that it continues to occur.<\/p>\n

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He even argues that 50 percent of these videos were published after the discovery of the property attributed to the CJNG cartel in Rancho Izaguirre (Jalisco) in March 2025.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis problem isn\u2019t stopping, it\u2019s just becoming more sophisticated: there are other forms of violence besides physical and direct violence; that is, criminal groups no longer necessarily have to put a gun to young people\u2019s heads to recruit them,\u201d he emphasized.<\/p>\n

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To this type of violence, Pe\u00f1a adds structural violence, which affects minors marked by \u201cpoverty and a lack of opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He also mentions symbolic violence, linked to \u201cidentity or masculinity issues,\u201d since most of those recruited are men immersed in a \u201chypersexualized\u201d digital context.<\/p>\n

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In his opinion, this problem isn\u2019t t solved by closing internet accounts, as the federal government has done, but by educating minors who live in a country where eight out of ten children aged 3 to 12 have access to a smartphone.<\/p>\n

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Source:\u00a0Milenio<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSol Prendido\u201d for Borderland Beat\u00a0 Pablo Escobar recruited underprivileged children into the ranks of drug trafficking in 1989, and more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29805,"featured_media":1764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[24,21,20,22,27,23,25,19,28,26],"class_list":["post-1095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-rss","tag-cartel","tag-el-chapo","tag-el-mayo","tag-el-mencho","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-zetas","tag-mexico","tag-narco-news","tag-san-diego","tag-west-coast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29805"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}