(Newswire.net — April 26, 2017) — One of the reasons so many people favored Donald Trump’s platform of his stance on veterans is because soldiers put their lives on the line everyday to protect the American public. The problem is that currently, those in the military are rarely compensated for the work they do and the danger they put themselves in. It may be because of the failure of the American government to fairly compensate those who work tirelessly, that many U.S. soldiers could be enticed to accept contracts from the drug cartels to take out their competition.
There is a rumor that drug cartels are hiring American soldiers to work as hitmen to eliminate drug competition. Many are being offered great compensation per contract, which is very attractive. According to law enforcement at the border, highly-trained military professionals are supplementing their income by killing the “bad guys” while being paid by the other “bad guys.”
This isn’t just speculation: this past summer, Michael Apodaca, a twenty two year old private first class soldier from Fort Bliss received a life sentence in prison during as part of a trafficking drugs lawsuit, for obtaining the contract to kill Jose Daniel Gonzalez-Galeana. The problem is that Gonzalez-Galeana was an informant for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. In that case, a soldier wasn’t taking out a “bad guy.”
Apodaca was paid by Juarez Cartel, $5000 to assassinate the informant in his luxury home in El Paso. The police chief living just a couple of doors away apparently didn’t deter Apodaca; he was trained to kill. After serving in Afghanistan, Apodaca had no problem recounting the events in 2009 when he shot eight rounds at the victim and then fled the scene. Quickly after taking out the informant, he contacted the person who set up the contract to let him know that Apodaca’s end was fulfilled.
It isn’t the first incident of ex-military personnel being involved in contract hits with the drug cartels. In September of last year, two other Fort Carson military personnel officers plead guilty to taking on a contract hire for the Los Zetas drug syndicate — among the most violent of the drug-trafficking criminals. The problem was that the people who “set up” the contracts weren’t Los Zetas members — rather, they were undercover agents.
Apparently, the new term for being okay with getting your hands dirty taking out drug cartel members for money is called “wet work.” Not only did the two military personnel who talked with the undercover agents tell them that they were okay with assassination for money, but they also said that they could use military-issued weapons to aid in the crime. Drug Enforcement Agents insisted that the military men said that they not only could handle a kill but that they had high-grade, high-tech equipment to make it much less messy and harder to trace.
Concerning federal agents and law enforcement is that with many ex-military professionals returning to civilian life without jobs or training, these contracts may become even more attractive. Having the training makes them susceptible for cartels to target, and the high pay is very attractive to an ex-military soldier looking to support his family.
Cartels are highly sophisticated corporations, and they have the knowledge and the means to target military personnel effectively. Due to the nature of drug trafficking, violence comes naturally, which is why recruiting military personnel who have been on a battlefield is an excellent idea.
Cartels know that once a soldier has witnessed death and carnage on the battlefield, they are more likely to see killing someone who is a danger to society as completely justifiable. The money only makes it much more attractive and likely that the soldier will risk it all to score big.
No one is certain if the drug cartel is systematically recruiting military personnel to contract for kills, but the threat of it is real. With two prior offenses, it is definitely something that those working against the drug cartels need to take into consideration and pay close attention to. If the Trump Administration can focus more on ex-military aftercare and compensation, it might make the cartel contracts not look so attractive. But with so much already to accomplish along military lines, that may be far in the future.