Child drug couriers court death

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Dec 14 (Reuters) For teenagers in Rio de Janeiro's mean slums, working in the drug trade is a lucrative way to make a living. It's also a fast way to dying.

Youths as young as 11 start off as messengers and look-outs for the drug gangs that control the packed shantytowns known as favelas, then earn promotion to soldiers or sellers.

Clashes with Rio's paramilitary police force erupt daily.

Battles between rival gangs over control of selling points add to the bloodshed.

''I've seen a lot of friends killed, a lot,'' said a young man called Joao in Rocinha, Rio's largest favela. ''People I grew up with.'' Joao said he had joined up four years ago when he was 17.

He began as a ''fogueteiro,'' letting off rockets to warn of a police invasion, and made his way up to a ''vapor'', or seller.

He quit last month with the help of Tio Lino, a Rocinha resident who runs a project teaching art to kids.

''Now I can sleep at night. I'm cool now. I'm with Christ,'' Joao said, showing a visitor his new Bible.

He is one of the lucky ones.

A study by Observatorio de Favelas social group said that of 230 adolescents in the trade that it surveyed from April 2004 to May 2006, 45 were now dead. Police killed 23 and nine died in fights with other gangs.

Some 57 per cent were aged 13 to 15 when they joined and most were black or mixed race, it said. Most had taken part in gunfights.

A 2002 study ''Children of the Drug Trade,'' by Luke Dowdney, estimated 5,000 teenagers worked in the Rio business and most were armed. The situation has since deteriorated, experts said.

''The talk is that younger people are coming in. The state makes it worse because it meets violence with more violence,'' said Ignacio Cano of Rio de Janeiro State University.

DRUG DEALERS, ROLE MODELS IN SLUMS The problem has its roots in the poverty and deprivation of the slums. The favelas have long been marginalized from mainstream society in this city of 5 million people and their residents face discrimination from people living outside.

Although the teenagers volunteer for the job feeding the cocaine and marijuana habits of the whole city, they do not have many other options. Jobs and educational opportunities are few. The pay is also considerably higher than Brazil's minimum wage. And there is a certain glamour and prestige.