Gatillero - El

In the Mexican border towns of Tijuana and Juárez, a Gatillero earns roughly $200–$500 per hit. That is the price of a used smartphone. That is three weeks of groceries. They die young. The average "shelf life" of a cartel shooter is less than 18 months. They are disposable tools—cartridges fired by the bosses and then ejected onto the street.

Contrary to the lavish music videos, the average is not rich. The pay scale is brutal: El Gatillero

is defined by his hardware. While Hollywood imagines machine guns, the reality is diverse and tactical. In the Mexican border towns of Tijuana and