WITH her red hair flowing over her shoulders, pretty Juana looks like any other young woman in her 20s β apart from the fact she's holding a machine gun. Though she may have an innocent face, Juana is actually one of the world's most dangerous women - a bloodthirsty assassin who murdered five men and then drank their warm blood before having sex with their decapitated bodies.
Girls as young as seven are kidnapped or forcibly taken from their parents by drug lords and trained to kill, while others are lured in by the glamorous lifestyle flaunted by the millionaire drug traffickers. Although it is not yet known if she was murdered, many of her contemporaries have been targeted by squads of rival women. But their successors continue to flaunt their bloodthirsty lifestyles on social media, posing with guns, flak jackets and even tigers in a bid to show off their wealth.
This year, the number of deaths attributed to the drug wars between January and June was recorded at 17, - a new record.
Others have found themselves behind bars. The past three years have seen a percent increase in the number of women imprisoned for federal crimes in Mexico. Professor Andrew Chesnut, professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, says there's a growing trend for "young, beautiful and reckless" women lured by the millionaire lifestyle of the drug gangs to be lured into violence. Photojournalist Katie Orlinksy, who spent years documenting the lives of the cartels in Mexico, says the "feminisation of the drug war" is a recent trend, fuelled by the mass murder of men, leaving partners widowed, and the lack of opportunity for young girls.
In an article for the Alexia Foundation , she writes: "In a shattered economy Born in Hidalgo, near Mexico city, Juana was recruited by the ruthless Los Zetas cartel while working as a prostitute. Pregnant at 15, she turned to prostitution to support her child before becoming a lookout for the Zetas, keeping watch for enemies and cops for up to eight hours a day. In January , a startling picture of a slight young woman, hair scraped back and delicate gold chain adorning her neck and hugging a machine gun, went viral on Twitter and Facebook.
