Juárez hip-hop resembles narcocorridos: Music balm for sin-sick souls - El Paso Times
JUAREZ — It was hip-hop that saved an emerging Juárez artist’s life — and his hand. José Aaron Carreón García, aka MC Crimen, was at a hairdressers’ shop popular among gangs in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Carreón García, 23, wore a bracelet that read “Amor por Juárez,” which in English means love for Juárez.
One day, a man Carreón García refers as “The Don” stepped into the shop,
saw the young man’s bracelet and ordered other men to cut off Carreón García’s hand.
“I said, ‘No, wait! I am a hip-hop singer, not involved with any cartel,’” he said.
“The Don” gave him an opportunity to prove he was truthful. He arranged a meeting at an auto repair shop.
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Agüero Espinoza, 25, said his drug dealing was based in Horizon City, in East El Paso County.
“I moved the drugs everywhere,” he said. “I was the boss.”
A turning point in Agüero Espinoza’s gang life occurred one day when a 50-pound drug load was lost in rural San Elizario. He got a call from members of a cartel.
Men picked him up at the Zaragoza international bridge and took him to a ranch in the Valley of Juárez. There, he saw a high-ranking police official with a map pointing out where the load could have been lost. When Agüero Espinoza recognized another man the cartel members were torturing on the floor, they threatened to kill Agüero Espinoza.
The men freed Agüero Espinoza so he could find the truck with the drug load and sell it on the U.S. side, he said.
Before he knew it, Agüero Espinoza said, he was working directly for the cartel.
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