KINNEY COUNTY, Texas – Mexican cartels in the lucrative business of human smuggling are allowed to post “help wanted” ads on TikTok, according to law enforcement sources working near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Tayler Hanson is a journalist who went on a ride-along with the Kinney County Sheriff’s Department in Texas earlier this week. The area is a hot spot for human smuggling, which is largely facilitated by the Mexican cartels.
Law enforcement officers in the region routinely see dangerous chases, dramatic crashes, and catastrophic deaths as a result of the illegal smuggling operations. During the ride-along, Hanson learned from veteran Kinney County Sheriff’s Deputy Molinar that TikTok advertises smuggling jobs to Americans, the journalist reported for the Post Millennial.
After discovering this simple, yet tragic truth, Hanson quickly found more than a dozen ads that were blatantly advertising smuggling jobs for the cartel. One such ad had an information label from TikTok that read: “Participating in this activity could result in you or others getting hurt.”
Translation: “I need drivers based in Texas. Only serious enquires. Good pay: $10-20K USD in 3 hours. Houston, TX, Dallas, TX, San Marcos, TX, San Marcos, San Antonio, Austin, TX, Waco, TX, Temple, TX. Follow me and DM me if interested and if you have car or truck. We will pay more if you have a trailer.”
Hanson writes, “As you’ll see, the video with this label is a very obvious example of human smuggling and even shows the process of smuggling migrants past border patrol, chats between the smuggler and the organizer, and then the reward that comes after.”
WhatsApp chat translation:
Organizer: “Let me know. When do y’all arrive?”
Smuggler: “40”
Organizer: “Is there traffic?”
Smuggler: “A little bit. No more. 23 min”
Hanson reports that “this individual account, amongst countless others, are allowed to post recruitment videos with the intent to employ American citizens to engage in human smuggling on behalf of cartels. Instead of removing these illegal advertisements, TikTok allows cartel recruiters to stay on the platform and organize human smuggling operations.”
Hanson goes on to list several more examples along with testimonials from people like Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe, who said, “99.9% of smugglers they encounter and arrest are American citizens.”
Read more here.
