A few weeks back we passed along a story about how Mexican drug cartels were recruiting unsuspecting young people to work as "mules," or drug couriers, through classified ads in some Juarez newspapers.

But in a sign of how the drug wars along the U.S.-Mexico border have escalated -- and how blatant the kingpins and their armies have become -- some help-wanted signs appeared over the weekend in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, including a huge banner across a thoroughfare, seeking hitmen, The Associated Press reported.

The banner was allegedly the work of Los Zetas, a fierce group of former Mexican soldiers who serve as the enforcement arm of Mexico's Gulf drug cartel, a Mexican drug enforcement official told the AP on condition of anonymity.

The banner read: "Operative group `The Zetas' wants you, soldier or ex-soldier. We offer a good salary, food and benefits for your family. Don't suffer any more mistreatment and don't go hungry," according to the AP.

When the AP called a phone number listed on the banner and some of the recently defaced help-wanted signs, there was a recording that said the number did not exist.

But the federal official told the AP that authorities believe the banner is authentic, although an investigation is continuing.

Security expert Jose Luis Pineyro told the AP that the banner and signs may be a way for the cartels to thumb their nose at authorities -- after the government put up its own posters with photos of three Zetas, asking people to call police if they see them.

But Pineyro said it was unlikely to be an effective recruiting tool, saying those who have decided to desert the armed forces or to remain inside as spies have already done so, the AP reported.

6:35am 4/4/08 -- Drug Cartels Find It Pays To Advertise: Juarez newspapers running classified ads to lure unsuspecting mules, officials say.

Drug dealers are running vaguely worded classified ads in Juarez newspapers designed to lure unsuspecting young people to sneak contraband into the United States, Mexican consular officials told the El Paso Times.

Officials said they have determined that help-wanted ads run in the Mexican border city's newspapers P.M., El Diario de Juarez and El Norte have been used to dupe juveniles and young adults into becoming drug mules, according to the Times.

Socorro Cordova, spokeswoman for the Mexican Consulate in El Paso, said officials got wind of the problem about nine months ago after relatives of a driver who had been stopped at a port of entry showed agents a copy of an ad, the Times reported.

The Mexican Consulate provided the Times with an ad that ran in El Diario de Juarez offering jobs for "messengers," requiring a laser visa, an election certificate, a driver's license and a birth certificate.

Another ad, obtained from the El Paso County Attorney's Office, ran in the P.M. tabloid and offered work in El Paso for $400, and a phone number included in the ad turned out to be for cell phones, the Times reported. 

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