Former Drug Addict Makes Film that Warns Teens About Drug Cartel Recruitment Ben Feuerherd - The Fix
go to original February 9, 2013

Operation Detour is a non-profit gang/drug prevention program developed in cooperation with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to create awareness of the inherent dangers and consequences of drug trafficking and abuse. This program presents a real and true sense of the horrors and tragedies that befall individuals and their families who become involved with the drug trafficking underworld. (justin johnson)

A Texas law enforcement official and former drug addict who once "ran with the Mexican drug cartels" has produced a film to caution American teens about the dangers of drug cartel recruitment.

Rusty Fleming, public relations officer of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department in Sierra Blanca, has written, directed and produced Operation Detour, in which he draws from personal experience to create an informative and "brutally honest" depiction of involvement in the drug trade.

Fleming is a self-described "expert" on Mexican drug cartels, and claims he's been on "every side" of the drug war. "I'm an ex-addict myself," he tells The Fix. "I shot so much dope in my arm that my veins collapsed. I've run with the cartels, and I've run with the law enforcement chasing them."

His film, which he hopes to show at high schools across the country, depicts rape, kidnappings, murder, and prison - all of which he says are possible outcomes for young people who are recruited by drug gangs.

Fleming insists nothing was embellished, and one particularly violent scene reenacts of a real double murder that was carried out over $500 worth of pot in Orange County California a few years ago.

The film, which stars members of a tactical team of the Texas Department of Public Safety, began showing at schools in the El Paso area in January, and will soon be shown in other parts of the country.

According to a report last year, cartels often recruit US teens as young as 11 to smuggle drugs across the border, offering them up to $400 for each trip.

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