Drug cartel assassins: 'They exist, they are real,' says DEA
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SAN ANTONIO — In Spanish, they're known as sicarios and in English, they're assassins, as the Drug Enforcement Administration or DEA tells Fox San Antonio, they're the enforcers for the Mexican Drug Cartels and with our proximity to the border, they're known to cross back and forth to get their deadly orders carried out.
"They exist, they are real," said Dante Sorianello, the assistant special agent in charge of the San Antonio district DEA.
The old organized crime terms in the United States are button man, hit-man or a mechanic... they all mean assassin.
"Fortunately a lot of that significant violence is taking place in Mexico, and I say that, I mean it's a problem for the Mexican government, for the United States government it's not as bad," said Sorianello.
Sorianello says sicarios do come to the U.S. and exhort or push their force upon people through the form of threats.
"Obviously, we don't see the violence like takes place in other countries. However they are here, there are violent crimes and murders that do occur because of drug trafficking," said Sorianello.
And over the last 7-10 years, especially in Mexico, Sorianello says teenagers have been recruited to this job.
"There was development that they saw in some of the cities where these drug gangs or cartels would start recruiting teenagers to do some of their dirty work and if they survived it, if they were good at it, they continue their development into becoming a full-time operator for the criminal organization and that included committing murders," said Sorianello.
Professional assassins are also enlisted by organized crime and some at some point in life may have actually worked and have been trained by a government law enforcement entity.
"Whether they are former military people or former people who've engaged in some sort of training activity where they have learned these skills," said Sorianello.
