Prayer Letter

[Daniel White Family]

Thank you all for your faithful prayers and support. The situation
here on the border continues to deteriorate and despite what the
mainstream media reports, the drug cartels are becoming more brazen
and more active on the US side of the border.


Daniel & D'Ann White

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Mexican drug cartels recruiting Texas children
Friday, October 21, 2011 | Borderland Beat Reporter Layla

source:
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/10/mexican-drug-cartels-recruiting-texas.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BorderlandBeat+%28Borderland+Beat%29

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Texas law enforcement officials say several
Mexican drug cartels are luring youngsters as young as 11 to work in
their smuggling operations.

Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told
Reuters the drug gangs have a chilling name for the young Texans lured
into their operations.

"They call them 'the expendables,'" he said.

McCraw said his investigators have evidence six Mexican drug gangs --
including the violent Zetas -- have "command and control centers" in
Texas actively recruiting children for their operations, attracting
them with what appears to be "easy money" for doing simple tasks.

"Cartels would pay kids $50 just for them to move a vehicle from one
position to another position, which allows the cartel to keep it under
surveillance to see if law enforcement has it under surveillance," he
said.

"Of course, once you're hooked up with them, there's consequences."

McCraw said 25 minors have been arrested in one Texas border county
alone in the past year for running drugs, acting as lookouts, or doing
other work for organized Mexican drug gangs. The cartels are now
fanning out, he said, and have operations in all major Texas cities.

This month, "we made an arrest of a 12-year-old boy who was in a
stolen pickup truck with 800 pounds of marijuana," he said. "So they
do recruit our kids."

McCraw says the state of Texas is joining a program initiated by U.S.
Customs and Border Protection called "Operation Detour," in which law
enforcement officers meet with children and their parents in schools
and at community centers to warn them about the dangers of what
appears to be the easy money the Mexican drug gangs offer.

Law enforcement officers say children are less likely to be suspects
than adults, are easily manipulated by relatively small sums of money,
and face less severe penalties than adults if arrested.

Last month, Texas officials released a report indicating Mexico-based
drug gangs are intent on creating a "sanitary zone" on the U.S. side
of the Rio Grande, and are "intimidating landowners" in south Texas
into allowing them to use their property as "permanent bases" for drug
smuggling activity.