'You can't just get out': How 2 boys were recruited into the drug trade at the age of 12
Boys are selling drugs linked to international cartels, police say
Kai was 12 years old when he began to warn his mother he might not make it home.
uncertain
he → get → it
"[If] I don't make it home by four o'clock, just know that I got snatched and somebody put me in their car and kidnapped me," he would tell her.
asserted
he → make → her
His mother, whom CBC's the fifth estate is calling Aria for her protection, moved her family to another city when Kai was a boy to disconnect from his father, who had a criminal past and street associations.
asserted
who → call → past
She enrolled Kai, whose name has also been changed for his protection, in community centres and drop-in spaces in Winnipeg to keep him busy and away from trouble
But Aria believes those spaces exposed her son to people who would exploit him.
asserted
who → enrol → him
- Watch the full documentary, "Missing Boys: Lured into Danger," from the fifth estate on YouTube or CBC-TV on Friday at 9 p.m.
She believes some staff abused their positions, allowing gang members to manipulate her son and coerce him into the drug trade — sending him thousands of kilometres away from home.
asserted
members → watch → home
Fifth estate host Mark Kelley, left, sits down with a boy who was recruited by a gang when he was 12.
asserted
he → sit → gang
He says he has been sent out of town to sell drugs more times than he can count.
asserted
he → say → drugs
Kai said men in their 20s and 30s presented themselves as people he could trust.
uncertain
he → say → people
"People call it grooming, people call it using.
asserted
people → call → it
There's many words for it, but it's just being taken advantage of because you're innocent," Kai said.
asserted
Kai → be → advantage
For the last two years, the fifth estate has investigated the disappearances of young Black boys from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) who are groomed and lured into drug trafficking networks in Ontario cities as far away as Sarnia and Thunder Bay, and sent further north into Indigenous communities like Ginoogaming, a First Nation.
asserted
who → investigate → Ginoogaming
Now, the fifth estate has heard directly from boys who live this dangerous life and say they were sent across the country to sell drugs, revealing a network that reaches even farther.
asserted
that → hear → network
We now know of this activity taking boys as young as 12 as far west as British Columbia, as far north as Yellowknife and as far east as Halifax — places where drugs are sold at exponentially higher prices — up to 10 times the price in some cases.
asserted
drugs → know → cases
In an interview with CBC's the fifth estate, Kai recounts his first trip out of town, also known as “going OT,” when he was 12.
asserted
he → recount → OT
"You don't know what's in those bags.
asserted
what → know → bags
You don't know what you're delivering for people … you just think, 'I'm helping the older guy, because I want to be cool like him,'" he said.
asserted
he → know → him
Kai said the older men picked him up, told him where he would stay and expected him to sell drugs.
asserted
him → say → drugs
He was left in a remote community eight hours north of his home in Winnipeg.
asserted
He → leave → Winnipeg
LISTEN: The Missing Boys: When It All Went Wrong
Kai said he did not fully understand what he was getting into.
asserted
he → listen → what
He had to figure it out in a place where he did not know anyone and his family was out of reach.
asserted
family → have → reach
"You're not telling family members," he said. "Because not only do they not know where you are, you don't know where you are."
asserted
you → tell → members
The first trip taught him more about what he calls the rules of "the game," where the three outcomes are freedom, jail or death.
asserted
outcomes → teach → game
And he says he was forced to gamble for the gangs.
asserted
he → say → gangs
"You can't just get out ... whoever sent you there is expecting you to come back with a prize," Kai said.
asserted
Kai → get → prize
"And if you don't come back with anything … God forbid something happens to you."
asserted
something → come → you
Now 14, Kai has made more trips out of town than he can count.
asserted
he → make → town
Jamal, another teenager whose name has been changed for his safety, started going OT at 12.
asserted
name → change → 12
He had been away from home for more than a week and his mom reported him missing.
asserted
mom → report → him
The now-18-year-old who lives in the Toronto area said he has been sent to communities in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.
asserted
he → live → Saskatchewan
Jamal's farthest trip took him to Yellowknife.
asserted
trip → take → Yellowknife
He was even convinced to pay his own way.
asserted
He → convince → way
Like Kai, Jamal said it was in Grade 7 when he was first approached to work for a gang.
asserted
he → say → gang
His family had spent a year bouncing between houses and he grew close to older people in his neighbourhood who were often around his cousins.
asserted
who → spend → cousins
"I always just had the respect and looked at them like an older role model," he said.
asserted
he → have → model
Jamal said those role models could offer him an escape from the instability at home.
uncertain
models → say → home
- THE FIFTH ESTATE
Searching for Ontario��’s missing Black boys
Calls to stem violence in northern First Nations as Ginoogaming man’s family mourns shooting death
asserted
family → search → death
"If things were stable at home, I wouldn't really have a reason to go outside," he said.
asserted
he → have → reason
Jamal said the adults he worked for were selling drugs bought internationally — and worked with cartels.
asserted
he → say → cartels
Then Jamal tells the fifth estate how the boys cross the country — a key piece of information — as many families are baffled as to how their boys are boarding planes and driving to remote locations when they are too young to have a driver's licence and don't have identification.
asserted
they → tell → identification
Jamal said fake names and identification are provided for them.
asserted
names → say → them
…and 94 more, not listed.
The Aporia
