Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. The teenager turned himself in to Mexican police, then called Detective Garcia to ask to be extradited to the U.S., fearing reprisal for his error, or from rival gang member. Cardona was arrested and pleaded guilty to killing seven men and to conspiracy to kidnap and kill in a foreign country. Featuring his first-ever on-camera interview, this is the extraordinary story of Rosalio 'Bart' Reta. The comments below have not been moderated. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. Rosalio Retas career as a teen drug cartel assassin had begun. (Prosecutors say during his trial Reta used make-up to cover the facial markings.) Join Facebook to connect with Rosalio Reta and others you may know. Instant downloads of all 1699 LitChart PDFs In Chasing the Scream, journalist Johann Hari spends three years trying to understand the war on drugs by interviewing hundreds of people who have fought on its front lines. Rosalio "Bart" Reta, 17, was immediately sentenced to 40 years in prison. -Graham S. The timeline below shows where the character Rosalio Reta appears in, Chapter 9: Bart Simpson and the Angel of Jurez, drug war. The detective sitting across the table from Reta and Cardona in those sessions is Robert Garcia. 'I'm really a good person," he told CNN recently. A teenage hit man who killed at the behest of leaders of the Gulf Cartel pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a December 2005. Cardona and Reta could move freely and easily back and forth across the border with Mexico. Rosalio Reta was born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico in 1990, and he was raised on both sides of the United States-Mexico border. LAREDO, Texas (CNN) -- Rosalio Reta sits at a table inside a Laredo Police Department interrogation room. 'I've come to regret everything I've done. The job of a cartel assassin isnt one most people grow old and retire from. The teen was arrested in 2010, and told authorities he killed four males by slitting their throat, and was paid weekly in pesos and dollars. Absolute control, Reta said of Trevinos power. But investigators started suspecting something more sinister. He is only in his 20s, but he's facing a lifetime of monotony in solitary confinement. Complete your free account to request a guide. Now 20, Rosalio Reta is sitting on the other side of a thick glass window, speaking into a telephone handset in the visiting area of a Texas prison. Investigators say Reta and another American recruit were paid $500 a week on retainer to sit and wait for a call to kill. Then Noe Flores was gunned down in a clear case of mistaken identity. For Reta, the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo, with its nightlife, its danger and its glamor, intrigued the restless teen, and one fateful night, his curiosity was to be sated. 'The best we could do'Reta decided to plead guilty, but retain his right to appeal, after his statement to police was allowed as evidence over his attorney's objections, said the attorney, Eduardo Pena. Refine any search. 4:56 PM EDT, Tue August 6, 2013, a Mexican government security spokesman told reporters in July. She was gunned down in front of the state capitol in Chihuahua City during a protest against the drug cartels influence in the Mexican government. Rosalio Reta and his friend, Gabriel Cardona, were members of a three-person cell of American teenagers working as cartel hit men in the United States, according to prosecutors. OG Shadow's channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlNhxVZxIJ_7KhgdmaO2QQInterview with OG Shadow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kDPbfrmEncPrison Questions Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPT_cCpNMvT4gP9OHCrUphCxJYdH06b7EShaun's true crime podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPT_cCpNMvT50d_7cJ55ciKoZEY8q_YPtShaun's books: https://shaunattwood.com/shaun/books/Shaun's UK tour dates: http://shaunattwood.com/category/events/Website: http://shaunattwood.com/ Blog: http://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.co.uk/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/shaunattwood Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shaun-Attwood/228166633865948#cartel #narcos #warondrugs #mexico He was also a member of the Barrio Azteca, a gang based in El Paso prisons. In 2003, he brought his friend Rosalio Reta to Nuevo Laredo for adventure, eating at a restaurant before his brother summoned him to meet with Los Zetas chief Miguel Trevino Morales. SHARN STEINMANN/Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Lori Garcia . Rosalio Reta, convicted drug cartel assassin Over the years the ramshackle neighborhood has developed into a discarded border region where homes sit on dilapidated foundations and families live. Sheriff Joe has built a jail that he refers to publicly as his concentration camp, and presidential candidates flock here during election campaigns, emerging full of praise. Reta and other teenagers were groomed and made to carry out assassinations on both sides of the border. Investigators say Cardona and Reta were paid $500 a week each as a retainer, to sit and wait for the call to kill. Its a violent world.. "There's no doubt about it.". His friend Cardona is serving a sentence of 80 years. In an interview with CNN, Reta describes a night when friends took him across the river to Nuevo Laredo. He is also accused of being involved in the murder of US Consulate staffers killed in Ciudad Juarez in 2010. He was freed in November 2013, and sent to a support center in San Antonio. . The American teen had never before met anyone who carried a pistol adorned with such an unforgettable decoration: the number 40 encrusted in diamonds on the handle. Top dog: Miguel ngel Trevio was at the head of the most vicious, violent and depraved of Mexico's drug cartels until his arrest last month. It's eating me inside little by little, and there's nothing I can do or say to justify my actions.'. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. When developing to the teenage years, they had dropped out of school and had become friends with bad influences. He still faces separate charges in another killing in Laredo that was allegedly carried out on the orders of the Mexican Gulf Cartel. It was the ease with which the boys could cross back and forth across the border that made them valuable to the Mexican Zetas drug cartel. Reta said he began to fear that rival cartel members were getting close to killing him as retribution, so while working on an assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, he called a contact at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and surrendered. After he botched a job in Mexico, he knew that he would face Trevino's death, so he surrendered to the law and agreed to testify against the Zetas. Trevino then released his team of assassins onto the streets of Laredo, Texas, engaging in a series of high-profile murders. In a gun battle, in a confrontation, hes the first one to get out of his truck and lead his people. Cardona says it wasnt long before he also became a drug cartel assassin. 'Cell' of young enforcersThe accused ring leader in the Flores killing, Jesus "Jesse" Gonzales, fled to Mexico after making bail. Garcia told CNN. Once he bragged to police, 'If I cannot hit you in the forehead from a distance, I will kneel down in front of you and put my forehead against the muzzle of your gun. Lopez allegedly worked for Teo, a drug lord from the Tijuana area, and allegedly helped the drug cartel dispose of hundreds of victims by dissolving them in acid. They each say they lived the life for about three years, Cardona from age 16 to 19; Reta, from age 13 to 16. Escajeda is also presumably responsible for the killing of anti-crime activist Benjamin LeBaron. It was real hard for me. To make a point, sometimes Trevino sent messages along with decapitated corpses of rival cartel members, said Reta. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!, This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. Rosalio Reta is on Facebook. App. Many Zeta leaders often use numbers as their cartel nicknames. For each ordered hit, they said, they were paid an extra fee about $10,000, and sometimes even more depending on the importance of the targeted victim. A detective, sitting across the table, asks him how it all started. Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. Healthy mother-of-two, 32, collapsed and died from brain bleed while she led fitness bounce class, Taking Vitamin D each day could cut your chances of getting dementia, study claims. TRAGEDY: Mexico's drug war claims thousands of lives every single year (Image: GETTY) A teenager accused of being a hit man for a drug cartel pleaded guilty to murder Thursday, abruptly ending a trial that exposed the cartel's workings in the U.S. and Mexico. "They tried to take the gun away, but it was like taking candy from kid.". Rosalio Reta, convicted drug cartel assassin Over the years the ramshackle neighborhood has developed into a discarded border region where homes sit on dilapidated foundations and families live. Cardona was also making a name for himself at that time, and impressing the same narco leaders. Reta killed his first victim at 13 years old, when a drug lord handed him a gun and commanded him to shoot another man. He was eighty when I met him, and about to be elected to his sixth consecutive term. They brought him to a ranch where, according to Reta, 'They were torturing people and getting information from them. I will look you in the eyes while you kill me.'. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. The money and lifestyle were so seductive and intoxicating that both teenagers dropped out of school and started living the high-rolling, lavish lifestyle. It was kind of hard to believe.. It was real hard for me. I knew that my life had just changed forever, Reta told CNN this week, 11 years later. Rosalio Reta was just 13 years old when Miguel Trevio, leader of the ruthless Zetas, the paramilitary wing of Mexico's Gulf Cartel, recruited him as a killer. Rosalio Reta, in some of his initial media interviews, expressed glassy-eyed contrition, casting himself as a hapless victim of grave forces beyond his control. Teachers and parents! I never thought that I was going to die in prison.. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." One of the most feared and powerful drug kingpins in the world, Trevino took drug cartel brutality to never-before-seen levels. The teenagers lived in several safe houses around Laredo and drove around town in a $70,000 Mercedes-Benz. Two men reveal details about their lives as teen drug cartel assassins, Now in prison, Rosalio Reta and Gabriel Cardona were hit men for drug lord "Z-40", For each killing, they say, they each were paid about $10,000, Their stories offer a glimpse into a dark world that threatens countless Mexicans and Americans. Meet Rosalio Reta, an inmate in Texas who killed over 30 people during his time as a hitmanstarting at age 13for Miguel Trevio, the just-captured boss of the brutal Zeta drug cartel. The I Files, a YouTube channel devoted to investigative journalism that uploaded the Reta interview, has promised a full documentary about him and the Zetas in the coming months. An El Paso man convicted of killing 17 people, who later became a motivational speaker, was killed by his cellmate in a Chihuahua prison, authorities announced Sunday. Rebecca Salinas is a digital producer at the San Antonio Express-News. ", In Cardona's interrogation tape, there are clues that "Los Zetas" are reaching deeper and deeper into the United States. Assistant District Attorney Jesse Guillen said the trial in the second case against Reta would likely start soon and would give authorities another chance to add time to the teen's prison sentence. When orders from cartel leaders came, the men would begin hunting their prey. Reta, 24, and Cardona, 26, still bear signs of their years as feared assassins. In that moment, even though it was another man he was instructed to kill, Reta's life was over. Im really a good person, he said. The question remains: How did two American teenagers become killers-for-hire for a Mexican drug cartel? He's the author of two odd books of fiction, 'Ivyland' and 'True False. These notable hitmen worked in and around the U.S.-Mexico border, involving themselves with powerful and violent drug cartels. After some prodding, Cardona estimates he probably killed close to 30 people in less than two years. He was only 16. Reta didn&#8217 ", Prosecutors say both teens were given military-style training in Mexico. 2023 Cable News Network. They offered a first-hand glimpse inside the sinister world of drug cartels, a world that plagues innocent people on both sides of the border. He doesnt spend a lot of time thinking about the violence he wielded, he said. The following correctional supervision record (the "Record") was collected from the official state department of corrections website (see below for source link). Hes not going to ask people to do something that hes not willing to do himself. Michael. Trevino had built control and protection systems to insulate his organization at every level from law enforcement agencies and politicians. Witnesses testified Wednesday that Reta and two other men working for the cartel were paid $15,000 to kill a Laredo man in January 2006. . People getting tortured, killed, decapitated. Posted on Jul 22, 2013Updated on Jun 1, 2021, 10:57 am CDT. PDF downloads of all 1699 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. Jailed teenage hitman gets 30 years in Laredo killing, , a 19-year-old Houston native, pleaded guilty in state district court in Webb County to shooting. As '24 nears, FL Gov. TV Shows. And like everything in the violent world of drug cartels, unraveling truth and myth seems fleeting. Reta, in Spanish street slang, describes his initiation as an assassin, at the age of 13, for the Mexican Gulf Cartel, one of the country's two major drug gangs. Some like it, NOT! Air Date: Apr 6, 2011. He allegedly deserted the army in 1999 and was a top lieutenant to current Zeta leader Heriberto Lazcano. If you believe this Record is in error (i.e. Instant PDF downloads. Before his arrest, he was on the FBI's most wanted list. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I wasn't living my life,' he told CNN. A lot of people get dragged into this lifestyle, but what we fail to see is we do it to ourselves. Their short but bloody careers came crashing down swiftly, one after the other. He was a good student, but he was more interested in what was happening across the river from his town, in the cantinas and barrios of Nuevo Laredo. 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