Meeting a millennial without a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter is as difficult as finding a unicorn, but our generations obsession with social media is being used by criminal gangs from Central America to find their victims.
Public Radio International reported on Thursday that illegal aliens who broke into to escape gangs in Central American countries like El Salvador are being targeted through their Facebook accounts.
“When (immigrant teens) come to the United States, there’s always a way to be found, unfortunately, unless someone can be in a situation that’s similar to a witness protection program,” said Susan Cruz, who helps young immigrants in conflict with the law, to PRI. “They start cross-referencing by cell phone numbers. You can look up someone’s Facebook profile with their cell phone number alone.”
Gangs like MS-13 are targeting millennial migrants through their Facebook and cell phone numbers that they use to stay in touch with relatives back in their native countries.
“I had a situation with a young man who stayed in communication with his younger sister, and through her friends at school (the gangs) found him here in the United States, and they attempted to extort him again,” Cruz continued to PRI.
Criminal gangs have become experts at finding millennials fleeing violence in Central America and continue to threaten, extort, and attack through various cells they have in the U.S.
Millennials have chosen to live their life on social media and for many fleeing violence, it has become their own worst enemy.
