Not the case most times when Cartels are involved in stead they kidnap people and force them to run their drugs or murder members of their families if they don't. The reason why is unwilling runners are better than risking having moles joining in their inner group who may be under cover law enforcement. That's the MO the Cartels used from most South and central nations and is why the Marinas in Mexico wear mask and don't wear name tags or any documents that reveal their families identity. If they do then the Cartels will go on line find their parents,children,grand-parents and present their addresses,schools their children go to ect. and tell them either they do what they tell them or loose everyone in their families. The same thing that took place in South and Central American nations is now shifting over into the US and is why we now see ICE/BP ect. agents concealing their identities by wearing mask and not wearing name tags.
Latin America relations is a challenge for USA because if we try to help them we get blamed as imperialists, and if we don't help them they becomes either dictatorships or chaos zones of factions that then hate us and blame us for not like intervening.