DPS: Drug cartels targeting school kids

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The Texas Department of Public Safety has issued a statewide warning for parents about Mexican drug cartels who are recruiting Texas schoolchildren.

Schools along the Texas border with Mexico are reporting more incidents of students being recruited to smuggle drugs and worse.

"Some of these kids are being recruited and then trained as killers and we need to do what we can to stop that from happening," said Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange. "We're concerned that could start happening all across the state, so we want to make sure that parents are on the lookout that this could really be a potential danger for their kids."

Mange said transnational gangs and drug cartels have representatives in Austin and in all major Texas cities.

In October, a nationwide crackdown on cartels netted several arrests in Austin and identified the city as the North American distribution center for one of Mexico's most dangerous drug cartels.

There have been no reported instances of recruiting in Austin area schools, but police are already targeting children as young as 4th grade to warn about the dangers of getting involved in gang activity. The GREAT program, or Gang Resistance Education Training, is taught in several Austin elementary and middle schools.

"I definitely feel this is making a difference," said Detective Steven Rodriguez, who teaches the GREAT program at AISD. "It gives them an idea about how to say no so they're not just joining a gang because they feel like that's their only avenue."

The elementary school program lasts 6 weeks and the middle school curriculum is designed for 13 weeks of instruction.

As part of their warning, DPS cautioned parents to pay close attention to who their children are associating with. They said the cartels lure school children with cash and cars and promise that if they get caught, the penalty will be less because they are juveniles.