Video After The JumpA sadistic drug-gang hitman has carried out a series of horrific killings in Mexico - aged just 12.
The boy, known only as El Ponchis - The Cloak - is the paid executioner for a cartel locked in a war for control of the lucrative cocaine trade.
He is believed to have tortured and slaughtered dozens of gangland enemies.
Cartel Victims
The boy's trademark murders involve slitting the throats of victims with a deep cutting technique known as Degollar, which leaves the head hanging by a thread.
Grisly videos circulating on the internet show victims having their throats slashed.
The youthful killer, whose name is not known, is also seen wielding a rifle and posing beside a dead body.
Another clip shows him battering a man with a club bearing the initials SPC - short for South Pacific Drug Cartel.
The Cloak "El Ponchise"
The hitman, picked for his psychopathic brutality and childlike devotion to gang bosses, works with a group of women called the Chavelas - some believed to be his sisters.
They drive vans carrying the bodies of people El Ponchis has killed to dumping grounds.
A Mexican army spokesman said: "We understand El Ponchis works under the command of Julio Jesus Radilla, a drugs head in the State of Morelos."El Ponchis, who is active in the town of Jiutepec, was identified during an investigation as the paid executioner of Radilla's enemies.
"These victims were tortured, their throats cut and bodies dumped at roadsides or abandoned areas."
The SPC is allied with another cartel called The Zetas to fight for control of cocaine supply routes.
Much of the cocaine they handle ends up on the streets of Britain.
El Ponchis and his boss Radilla both escaped when troops raided a suspected SPC base last month.
Mexico's increasingly grisly war against its drug barons has led to a state of emergency being declared in some states.
More than 50 people are killed by cartels every DAY and this year's death toll is set to exceed 18,000.
Total deaths in President Felipe Calderon's six-year term, which ends in 2012, could be around 60,000 - ten times the American losses in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
}
Comments