Now, for the downside of living in a still - developing part of the Third World!

And this Texas DPS warning is really grim:

"DPS warns parents that the Mexican cartels are recruiting Texas high school students"

"Last month, two Texas teenagers were lured into Mexico where they were kidnapped, beaten, ransomed and released in a remote area along the Rio Grande River..."

Some more snippets:

"Six of the seven Mexican Cartels have established established command and control networks in Texas and they are recruiting Texas students to support their drug, human, currency and weapon smuggling operations on both sides of the Texas / Mexican border.

"These Cartels and their operatives are extremely violent, torturing and killing thousands of people in Mexico, and they use transnational and Texas prison gangs to further their criminal operations in Mexico and the U.S.

"[S]aid Steven C. McCraw, DPS Director, Mexican Cartels have corrupted nearly an entire generation living in Northern Mexico and they seek to corrupt our youth as well to further their smuggling operations...

"The Texas border region represents 9.7% of the state's population, yet this region has 19.2% of the state's Juvenile Felony drug referrals, and 21.8% of the state's Juvenile Felony Gang Referrals.

"Last month, two Texas teenagers were lured to Mexico where they were kidnapped, beaten, ransomed and released in a remote area along the Rio Grande River..."

Original source for these snippets is cited by this week's Brackett News Weekly (Thursday, October 27, 2011) thusly: Submitted by Texas Department of Public Safety...