Maria Celeste Mendoza was among six teenage suspected gang members arrested by police after a shoot-out with authorities in central Mexico, one of the growing ranks of young people working for the country's drug cartels

Dressed in combat fatigues and with her face hidden, the girl from the northern border state of Tamaulipas described how she had been trained to use Kalashnikov assault rifles and other weapons by the Zetas, one of Mexico's most brutal gangs. Mendoza said that she was paid 12,000 pesos ($1,000) for two weeks' work, more than three times the national average. As is customary in Mexico, she and the other suspects, six of whom were women aged 21 or below, were paraded in front of the media by police after their capture in San Cristobal de la Barranca, near the country's second city, Guadalajara.