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Douglas, Arizona —

At 20, the young woman was struggling. She’d just given birth and had tuition, rent and baby formula to pay for. A single mother in Phoenix, she was trying to make ends meet and build a future, studying for her psychology degree.

“It kind of gets (to be) so much that you can’t ask somebody for help,” she told CNN.

Then one night, a Snapchat post seemed to offer a way out: “5-10k in a day lmk.”

Desperate, she swiped up.

“I said, ‘What is this for? What you guys doing?’ And they had explained to me, ‘You’re going to be picking up people.’ And I’m like, ‘People? Do they need a ride? What’s going on?’”

Posts like this offer cash for drivers. Tiktok

She stopped short of pressing for details. She didn’t have a car or even a license, so she was convinced she couldn’t do the job anyway. But she couldn’t stop thinking about the money. A week later she had another idea: Her friend had a car and could drive. Could they split the money?

“Yeah, we’ll still pay,” came the reply.

She didn’t stop to think much about the dangers or whether the offer was too good to be true — or legal.

Her friend headed south, collected a group of migrants near the border, and drove back again. Later that night, a man handed the young woman a wad of cash.

She was now involved in migrant smuggling, enlisted by a Mexican cartel recruiter through social media. An American operating entirely inside the United States, she was nevertheless extending the reach of cross-border gangs making money from trading people and drugs.

CNN has spent six months investigating how the cartels recruit, how people get sucked in and how law enforcement is tackling the problem which can, at first glance, look as innocent as a young, licensed person taking a drive through the desert.

From recruit to recruiter

The easy money kept coming for the young woman, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals but spoke with CNN by phone.

She said she did not know the man who brought her the money that first time, or all the times that followed.

“It would always be random people … that would bring me the money to get paid,” she said.