--- title: Drug War Ambulance | TIME description: As a violent drug war rages in Culiacán, Mexico, the only ambulance in town is staffed by Red Cross volunteers, many of whom are in their teens canonical: https://time.com/video/SsAEYOnK/ og:title: Drug War Ambulance og:description: As a violent drug war rages in Culiacán, Mexico, the only ambulance in town is staffed by Red Cross volunteers, many of whom are in their teens og:url: https://time.com/video/SsAEYOnK/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/SsAEYOnK/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Drug War Ambulance twitter:description: As a violent drug war rages in Culiacán, Mexico, the only ambulance in town is staffed by Red Cross volunteers, many of whom are in their teens twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/SsAEYOnK/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Drug War Ambulance > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Drug War Ambulance [Watch (HLS stream): Drug War Ambulance](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SsAEYOnK.m3u8) (4:27)  _Published 2008-12-19. As a violent drug war rages in Culiacán, Mexico, the only ambulance in town is staffed by Red Cross volunteers, many of whom are in their teens_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:04 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Thousands dead in Philippines' War on Drugs](/video/tP4qo3gf/) ### Thousands dead in Philippines' War on Drugs [Ambulance](/video/caBmuA8T/) ### Ambulance [The Deadly Job of Drug War Correspondent](/video/q7RStDB2/) ### The Deadly Job of Drug War Correspondent --- ## Transcript >> On the streets of Sinaloa in Northern Mexico, violence has exploded out of control this year as rival drug gangs fight over billion- dollar trafficking routes to the United States. Home to the nation's most infamous gangsters, Sinaloa has suffered from the rising killings despite the government sending in thousands of soldiers and federal agents. The bloodshed is stunning in its scale and brutality. Beheadings, massacres, executions [ unk ] and grenade attacks have claimed more than 1, 000 in estates since January. Incredibly, amid this intense carnage, the only ambulance service is provided by volunteers from the Red Cross. Mostly teenagers in the early 20s, the medics risk their lives for free at a sense of community. TIME went to spend the Saturday night with them in the state capital, Culiacán. 22- year- old Carlos [ unk ] explained how tough it is to work in a city packed with heavily armed dogs and gangsters. >> It's sad to think we can lose our life not knowing-- you know, volunteer service, we can lose our lives at the hands of these bad guys, the famed narcos. >> It is not long before we are sent out to a violent incident. This young man was shot and beaten, leaving a gaping head wound. The 24- year- old medic, Juan Carlos, is not sure if the victim still has a bullet lodged in his skull, but the Red Cross volunteers who have become experts in this type of injuries never tries to remove shells on the scene. They take the victim for surgery. So here at the City Hospital where the Red Cross take most of the victims of gunshot wounds and other violence, many private hospitals here in Culiacán won't accept victims of gunshot wounds because they worry about security with many cases of gunmen going into hospitals to finish off victims. I asked Juan Carlos if it is dangerous for them to attend to victims of violence. He tells me a horrific story about how gunmen once stopped an ambulance and shot a patient dead on his stretcher. -[ Foreign Language ] >> We returned to the Red Cross base to find another victim of violence coming in fighting with the violence. He has to be held down for start-- to stitch up his bleeding head wound. Back on the streets when we go to where a man is being dumped on the sidewalk with severe bruises on his face, Juan Carlos checks the body, but finds that it is too late for him to help. He seals the corpse and leaves it for police to investigate the killing. In the Red Cross, we get reports of more violence breaking out, but this is an incident that the volunteers decide not to go to. >> So, the paramedic, Enrique, has been explaining there has been a shootout at a house. Several people are believed to be injured inside the house from bullet wounds, but the Red Cross don't wanna go to the scene yet until the police have secured the scene because it's believed to be too dangerous at the moment. We decided to head down ourselves what is going on. Driving into a rough neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, we get to the scene just as the police were arriving. We find the victims have already died from their bullet wounds, the latest in a relentless wave of slayings with no end in sight. This is Ioan Grillo for time. com in Culiacán, Mexico. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Drug War Ambulance","description":"As a violent drug war rages in Culiacán, Mexico, the only ambulance in town is staffed by Red Cross volunteers, many of whom are in their teens","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/SsAEYOnK/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2008-12-19T14:52:31.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SsAEYOnK.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/SsAEYOnK/","duration":"PT4M27S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/SsAEYOnK/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```