Case Study
Digital platforms are increasingly being used for illegal activities. Recently, online video games have been used for drug trafficking. In September 2021, the first evidence emerged that drug traffickers along the U.S. - Mexico corridor were using online video games as a recruitment platform. MVS Noticias published documentation that an anonymous player claiming to belong to Cártel del Noreste contacted a teenage boy over ‘Grand Theft Auto’s’ (GTA) multiplayer online platform. The boy was offered money in exchange for working for the cartel in Northern Mexico but instead, reported this interaction. In October 2021, the Secretaría de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana presented the case of the successful localization and retrieval of three teenage boys which had been recruited by an unnamed criminal group via the online game ‘Free Fire.’ The criminal group offered the minors $800 (USD) per month to serve as police lookouts; the teenagers boarded a bus in Oaxaca bound for Monterrey but were rescued by authorities shortly afterwards.

The first documented seizure stemming from recruitment via online video games came less than a month later, on 4 November 2021. U.S. Customs & Border Protection seized 60 kilogrammes of methamphetamine from a driver crossing the U.S. - Mexico border. Once again, GTA’s multiplayer online platform was the method of contact. A recruiter promised the driver a payment of $2,000 (USD) if she took a bus into Mexico, picked up a car filled with electronics, and drove it into the U.S. However, the car’s fuel tank was fitted with a secret compartment housing the drugs discovered during a routine inspection at the border. Ultimately the driver was arrested for conspiracy to import and sell methamphetamine, and a criminal investigation is ongoing