To recruit Colombian soldiers with experience in explosives and intelligence work, Mexican cartels have bypassed intermediaries and are directly seeking out soldiers with the best profiles, either through phone calls or WhatsApp and Telegram messages.
A Mexican newspaper spoke with an active soldier in the Colombian National Army, who explained that Mexican criminal groups must have illegal access to soldiers’ resumes and personal phone numbers, as he has been contacted and offered large sums of money without even seeking them.
“Mostly through WhatsApp, in groups, they infiltrate and share contacts. For example, just yesterday one arrived for Ukraine, but they send many to the Mexican cartel, as mercenaries. They are offering a very good sum of money,” said an active Colombian soldier exclusively. The soldier, who claims to be an explosives technician, first responder, lancer, and paratrooper, said he receives a monthly payment of 4 million Colombian pesos, equivalent to about 18,300 Mexican pesos.
“(With the drug trafficker) you sign a one-year contract, monthly payment of 16 million Colombian pesos, approximately 73,000 Mexican pesos. It’s a personal decision for each person because that’s for mercenaries.”
According to the soldier, the contract stipulates certain rules that the mercenaries must follow:
“No cell phones, minimal contact, but there are the rules, they’re very few. You can’t name names, you can’t say where you’re at; the rules are very complicated, and they also involve discipline and responsibility.”
Subsequently, the soldiers who agree to collaborate with the cartels are transported to Mexico by two routes: by plane, entering Mexico City and Cancún, and by sea, along a route that begins at the Ecuador-Colombia border along the Pacific coast.
This is the same route followed by boats loaded with cocaine headed for Mexico.
