gives you that sense. you can do whatever without being touched or having that sense of power. reporter: he says cartel leaders supplied him with thousands of dollar as week, a mercedes and a house. the money was seductive and intoxicating for these teens who came from the ram shackled streets of a texas bored town. reporter: you enjoyed the money, but did you enjoy the killing? we did enjoy the money. you don t enjoy what you re doing. it didn t seem to bother you that much? no. reporter: cardona and retta say they would wait for the phone to ring. a cartel member would give them a name and they went hunting. each time these men say they were paid 5,000 to $10,000, sometimes more, depending on how big the target was. did you think you were the king of the town? at that time, you never think it s going to end because it
he bragged to a laredo police detective, that killing made him feel like superman, taking the gun out of his hand was like taking candy from a kid. how in the world did it come to this for two american teens? cardona and retta grew up here on lincoln street, a few blocks away from the mexican border. this is the neighborhood where they became friends. like many people around here, they each had families on both sides of the border in mexico and the united states. they could easily move back and forth between both sides. and as it turns out, that s exactly what the zettas drug cartel was looking for. as a teenager, he started stealing cars and selling them in mexico, then he started carrying drugs and weapons across the border, working his way up the cartel ranks to become a hit man. cardona dropped out of school in ninth grade. it was great. reporter: did you feel like you could do whatever you wanted? you were untouchable?
yeah, it gives you that sense. you can do whatever without being touched or having that sense of power. reporter: he says cartel leaders supplied him with thousands of dollar as week, a mercedes and a house. the money was seductive and intoxicating for these teens who came from the ram shackled steets streets of a texas border town. reporter: you enjoyed the money, but did you enjoy the killing? we did enjoy the money. you don t enjoy what you re doing. it didn t seem to bother you that much? no. reporter: cardona and retta say they would wait for the phone to ring. a cartel member would give them a name and they went hunting. killing one rival in this car while the victim s wife and child watched. each time these men say they were paid 5,000 to $10,000, sometimes more, depending on how big the target was. did you think you were the king of the town?
that s a day i m never going to be able to forget. after that i had no life. you kept on killing after the first time at that ranch? i had to. that s what a lot of people don t understand. that s what retta says now, in this police interrogation video. the young killer relished the deadly power he wielded. he bragged to a laredo police detective, that killing made him feel like superman, taking the gun out of his hand was like taking candy from a kid. how in the world did it come to this for two american teens? cardona and retta grew up here on lincoln street, a few blocks away from the mexican border. this is the neighborhood where they became friends. like many people around here, they each had families on both sides of the border in mexico and the united states. they could easily move back and forth between both sides. and as it turns out, that s exactly what the drug cartel was looking for. as a teenager, he started stealing cars and selling them
i knew that day my life had just changed forever. reporter: he then says an argument broke out. miguel trevino wanted to know why retta was there. trevino handed him a gun, they stood over a man tied up on the ground. what did they tell you to do? to kill that person. i have to do it. if i don t do it, i know what s going to happen to me. reporter: and then after did you it, you shot him? yes, sir. reporter: how many times? multiple times. reporter: a 13-year-old assassin was born. the first day i had to take somebody s life, that s a day i m never going to forget. after that i had no life.