Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Mexican drug cartels are using social media apps, such as TikTok, to smuggle migrants and recruit them to work in their illegal operations.
Abbott showed two TikTok videos to support his claims during a press conference on Thursday, according to a KLKNTV report.
Mexican drug cartels are trying to allure people with money, parties, boats, and fun but downplay the organizations criminal side, such as the murder. Greg Abbott noted that the cartels are not only smuggling drugs into Texas but also of people. These are two pictures from TikTok. And these are ads or videos and things being run by cartels on TikTok, trying to recruit people in Texas to assist them to commit their crimes with the promise of money and other things, Abbott said.
A Mexican cartel boss is disguising children as self-defense members and activists.
The cartel leader is reportedly paying them to stand at the town entrances as human shields in efforts to keep a rival cartel from attacking, as reported by Breitbart.
This cartel boss is the same drug lord who earlier ordered a hit on a Breitbart Texas writer. The cartel leader was known in the criminal underworld as El Boto. Cesar Sepulveda Arellano operates over several parts of the Mexican state of Michoacán.
His cell is part of the Viagras-Cartel Unidos alliance that is fighting in the many parts of Michoacán against Mexico s Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion. Los Viagras has remained open about their criminal activities.