Expendables (children in drug smuggling operations)

An October 2011 Reuters news report detailed that Mexican drug cartels recruit Texas children for their operations. The drug gangs named the children “the expendables.”
 
The name was possibly influenced by the popular action film set in Latin America, The Expendables (2010).
     
 
Wikipedia: The Expendables (2010 film)
The Expendables is a 2010 American ensemble action film written by David Callaham and Sylvester Stallone, and directed by Stallone. Filming began on March 28, 2009, in Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, and Los Angeles, and the film was released in theaters on August 13, 2010 in North America.
 
The film is about a group of elite mercenaries, tasked with a mission to overthrow a Latin American dictator.
   
Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary
ex·pend·able adj \ik-ˈspen-də-bəl\
Definition of EXPENDABLE
: that may be expended: as
a : normally used up or consumed in service “expendable supplies like pencils and paper”
b : more easily or economically replaced than rescued, salvaged, or protected
 
Yahoo! News
Mexican drug cartels recruiting Texas children
By Jim Forsyth | Reuters – Tue, Oct 18, 2011
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Texas law enforcement officials say several Mexican drug cartels are luring youngsters as young as 11 to work in their smuggling operations.
 
Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told Reuters the drug gangs have a chilling name for the young Texans lured into their operations.
 
“They call them ‘the expendables,’” he said.
 
McCraw said his investigators have evidence six Mexican drug gangs—including the violent Zetas—have “command and control centers” in Texas actively recruiting children for their operations, attracting them with what appears to be “easy money” for doing simple tasks.