Last year, the Mexican police revealed that the Mexican drug cartel used popular video games including GTA Online to recruit teenagers to help drug trafficking, but there was no concrete evidence. However, according to Forbes, the U.S. government appears to have collected evidence that GTA Online is indeed a recruiting tool for Mexican drug cartels.
In November, Arizona Customs and Border Protection officers found nearly 60 kilograms of methamphetamine while inspecting a Jeep Cherokee. During officers’ questioning of driver Alyssa Navarro, she said she was playing GTA Online in January 2021 when she encountered a man calling himself George, according to a search warrant released late last week.
After meeting in-game, Navarro said they then started chatting on Snapchat and eventually met in Phoenix, investigators said. George asked Navarro on Snapchat if he would be a “smuggler” shipping electronics for sale in Mexico, according to government documents. George told her she could be paid up to $2,000 per trip, depending on the load.
Federal investigators obtained Snapchat chats from Navarro’s phone in which George promised “a lot of money” and offered a transport ride in the same car she was in when she was arrested jeep. Navarro also said she was told to contact a man named Alfredo in Mexico who gave her the jeep. The contact told her she should fill up at some of the gas stations on the way and go to meet another unidentified person.
Customs and Border Protection officials found that the methamphetamine was hidden not in the electronics inside the car, but in the gas tank. According to the complaint, when investigators asked Navarro if she thought the job was weird, or the benefits were too good to be true, she admitted she did feel weird, and even asked herself, “I was on the bus to Mexico,” according to the complaint. What the hell are you doing?” But she went to meet her mysterious contact anyway.
Although Navarro has been charged with conspiracy to import and sell methamphetamine, as well as possession of methamphetamine. Earlier this month, she pleaded not guilty, but the Justice Department has not responded to a request for comment.