Steve Neavling

Federal authorities are alarmed at what appears to be an increase in cartels recruiting children and teenagers to smuggle drugs over the U.S. border, NBC 7 in San Diego reports.

Federal agents said children as young as 12 are being used as drug mules.

“It shocks me and saddens me that kids are getting involved. It doesn’t shock me that cartels will use whatever method they need,” Jose Garcia, a deputy special agent for ICE Homeland Security Investigations, told NBC 7.

Cartels are recruiting children outside schools and malls and by using social media, agents told NBC 7.

Making matters worse, the children appear to be moving more meth across the border.

Steve Neavling

 A new border outpost for CBP has opened in an isolated section of southwest New Mexico to combat a rise in crimes related to drug trafficking, authorities announced Thursday, the Associated Press reports.

For the first time, the mountainous region of Bootheel will be patrolled around-the-clock by CBP.

The idea was to place agents along smuggling routes, the AP reported.

The outpost is named “Camp Garza” to memorialize Agent Rene Garza, who was killed in 1999.

According to the AP, the area was one of the last unguarded regions along the U.S-Mexico border.

Steve Neavling

 A Missouri man was so spooked by an Internet scam that he tipped off police about child porn on his computer, the Springfield News-Leader reports.

Police say the unnamed man, who is now under investigation, panicked when he received an alert that the FBI wanted $200 to unlock his computer to search for porn.

Not knowing the alert was part of a computer virus, the man called police and said he believed there was porn on his computer that he had tried to delete in the past, according to the News-Leader.

When he took the computer into the police department for a look, cops said they found 20 images and a video of child porn.

Steve Neavling

In his first public comments about the downfall of CIA Director David Petraeus, President Obama said he is reserving judgment on whether the FBI handled the matter properly, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Obama said Wednesday that he is waiting for more information before deciding whether the FBI should have told him earlier about the investigation involving Petraeus.

One good sign, Obama said, is that it so far doesn’t appear like classified information had been disclosed  “in any way that would have had a negative impact” on national security, the Wall Street Journal wrote.

“I have a lot of confidence generally in the FBI,” Obama said.

The FBI continues to investigate whether Petraeus’ affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, led to the leak of classified information.

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