Omar García Harfuch, Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, mentioned that investigations continue into real cases. According to a report from the Ministry of the Interior, children ages 6 to 12 are recruited by organized crime gangs in Mexico for various illicit activities. Young people ages 13 to 17 are used in digital extortion, protection rackets, surveillance of safe houses, kidnappings, and even as hitmen.
The recruitment of youth by criminal groups occurs in 18 entities in Mexico. Among these entities are Baja California, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacán, Puebla, among others. According to Salvador Guerrero Chiprés, head of C5, 63% of job offers on social networks like Facebook turn out to be fake, and 19% of these offers are for sexual services.
Guerrero Chiprés warned that individuals under 35 years old with earnings under 10,000 pesos per month are the main victims of this type of scam. He recommended that young people carefully analyze job offers and avoid attending interviews alone, as many fraudulent offers could be related to criminal groups or human trafficking.
The most commonly offered fake jobs on social media include sexual services, agriculture, and waiter jobs, among others. C5 has identified that Facebook is the network with the highest number of deceptive job offers. To avoid falling for these scams, it is advised to research the company offering the job, analyze the language of the publication, and not attend interviews without a companion.
Criminal gangs recruit young people mainly in regions with lower institutional response capacity. Salvador Guerrero Chiprés highlighted that in Mexico City, 80% of job-related scams are attempts. Through social networks, it has been exposed that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is recruiting young people via WhatsApp groups, offering to pay allowances.
Omar García Harfuch mentioned that recruitment accounts for organized crime have been identified, and measures are being taken in this regard.
