"The return from hell": men's stories recruited with disappointment and forced to work for organized crime

He was formed under threat and forced to see how they murdered many of his clbadmates. Luis had never thought that responding to an offer of employment would lead him to live a hell in which he was removed by the sicarios of the Jalisco Cartel Nueva Generación (CJNG).

The story of Luis is part of a series of testimonies collected by the organization Fifth Element Media Lab on the events recorded in 2017, when it was discovered that the criminal organization had recruited with disappointment young people who were looking for a job of security guard.

Luis was working in a rehabilitation center, but was looking for a new job through social networks. In April 2017 has joined the Facebook page of GDL Jobs and Works Guadalajara.

Those who came to respond to this purported offer were recruited and trained against their will to become badailants of the criminal group. The journalistic investigation describes how young people from the municipality of Tala, in Jalisco, were deceived by ads posted on a Facebook page in which a salary of 4,000 pesos per month (US $ 209) was offered, they were then integrated into a group of WhatsApp and cited to attend a two-week training.

The report, prepared by journalists Alejandra Guillén and Diego Petersen, describes how Luis he managed to escape from a cartel camp located west of the city of Guadalajara.

"He never thought that On their first day of work, they would be placed in safe places and then climbed into camps in the Sierra de Ahuisculco, but not to kill them, but to train them. and force them to work for the Jalisco New Generation cartel. The families of some of them reported their disappearance, not knowing that they were alive in the hands of organized crime, "says the newspaper titled" The Return of Hell; " the missing who are alive. "

Near Tala disappearances of young people have been reported at least since 2012but some did not have the same luck as Luis, to be able to go home or escape their captors.

"I recognize everyone, there were 14 in total, they were sitting in a cabin in front of the rooms and told them not to move. The others were sitting in another hut. A gray Cheyenne arrived with United States plates and two subjects with squad type guns. One of them was El Greñas (boy of 20 or 21, child's face, El Sapo's right hand) who shouted at those who wanted to leave: that he was going to die. The first who fell was called "La Jaina". (short, 1.70, big nose, big face, guero, hair everywhere, without resources of Guadalajara) fell knocked on his knees. He was shot. Then "El Guachito", big nose; when he saw that they were going to throw him, he shouted "nooo!" raising hands in defense. They gave him two bullets. After Nopal, Toño, Chucho and El-18 opened fire on everyone, including a former policeman, "he said.

"The last one was left a 17 year old boy, hands between legs, head down, swaying. They came to see him because he was alive. El Pitayo told him, "Those bading guys told you to say you wanted to go." Out of the way, he answered "aha", and asked the boy crying "do I want to see my little sister and my mother". They gave him a bullet. Among the dead, there was Ignacio, who arrived with me the first day, and Ernesto. The taquero was also shot in the back, then 15 dead. To those who, out of fear, did not say that they wanted to leave, they made us wear the bodies. We lasted an hour and a half because there were some very heavy ones, we had to drag them to throw them in the corn (burn them)", says the testimony published by the organization.

Governmental authorities of Jalisco conducted an operation in 2017 during which they detected a CJNG camp in the Tala area and where at least three of those arrested reported being abducted and enslaved by the criminal group. The discovery of this camp led to the discovery of three others.