Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

Video Credit: CEN

This is the moment a group of ‘narco juniors’ in bulletproof vests are seen dancing together and shooting assault rifles into the ground.

According to local media, it is believed that the teenagers, reportedly no older than 18, have been recruited by the drug trafficking organisation ‘Los Marucheros’, part of the Noreste Cartel, which operates in the north-eastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

The group is said to be lowdown in the narco world and their main role is to guard roads and inform their superiors of anything suspicious.

Pictures Credit: CEN

Reports said that they are sometimes used in violent battles with rival gangs.

In the video footage, five teens are seen dancing as music plays in the background.

Two of them are wearing bulletproof vests and they all appear to be brandishing assault rifles as they jig around together.

At least two of the teens fire bullets from their assault rifles into the ground.

According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, over 30,000 ‘juniors’ were working for criminal organisations in Mexico in 2015.

In 2018, the same organisation said that 460,000 youngsters were recruited by drug trafficking gangs in the country.

It is believed that the criminal organisations recruit children as young as 10 or 11 to work as ‘trainees’, assisting experienced cartel members with various crimes and kidnapping.

In return, the gangs pay the children with cash, clothes, food and medicines, according to local media.

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