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Dozens, including minors, rescued from forced recruitment at Guadalajara bus terminal
🇲🇽 Mexico /Disasters & Emergencies

Dozens, including minors, rescued from forced recruitment at Guadalajara bus terminal

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified Under investigation
  • An operation in Guadalajara has identified 84 people, including 42 minors, who were potentially lured by criminal groups with false job offers.
  • The individuals, from various Mexican states, were found at the Nueva Central Camionera bus terminal.
  • Authorities are investigating the use of social media and street advertisements to recruit vulnerable young people, who are often promised high salaries.

An operation targeting forced recruitment by criminal groups at Guadalajara's Nueva Central Camionera bus terminal has led to the identification of 84 individuals, 42 of whom are minors. The Tlaquepaque police initiated the operation to identify people who may have been deceived with false job offers by organized crime.

The individuals located hail from numerous states across Mexico, including Jalisco, Michoacán, Sonora, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Sinaloa, Veracruz, Chiapas, Colima, Nuevo León, Puebla, Oaxaca, Guerrero, State of Mexico, and Mexico City. Mario Silva Orozco, Secretary of Security for Tlaquepaque, explained that a permanent surveillance operation, enhanced with biometric identification cameras, has been in place since the terminal was identified as a hub for disappearances.

Usually, these are people who receive job offers with very high pay. We have even found people with university degrees who are promised high salaries.

— Mario Silva OrozcoDescribing the profile of individuals targeted by criminal recruitment schemes.

Silva Orozco noted that not all 84 individuals were initially reported missing. Some families discovered their relatives had been lured to Guadalajara with deceptive employment promises and issued alerts for their location. "Usually, these are people who receive job offers with very high pay. We have even found people with university degrees who are promised high salaries," he stated. He described the victims as often exhibiting uncertainty and nervousness, having abandoned their lives for a job offer.

While many young people are recruited through social media or online games, others are ensnared by advertisements posted on streets. The ongoing surveillance operation involves 44 agents and eight vehicles, extending to the areas surrounding the terminal. The article also references the grim discovery in Culiacán in July 2025 of the bodies of Paul Alexander Ávila Aguirre and Carlos Alejandro Estrada Alba, who had disappeared months earlier in Jalisco after being recruited. Their recovery led Jalisco's prosecutor's office to reveal intelligence about the training of young recruits in hidden camps.

They always have that uncertainty or nervousness that they abandon everything to come for a job offer and that is precisely how they behave, fearful and nervous.

— Mario Silva OrozcoCharacterizing the demeanor of victims of deceptive recruitment.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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