Thread: Juarez cartel war waged on Internet

Juárez cartel war waged on Internet
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 05/28/2008 12:51:35 AM MDT


Video: Watch a Times-KTSM newscast on this story


The e-mail circulated last week that warned of a violent weekend in Juárez is part of a larger trend in which the Internet has become another front in the war among Mexican drug traffickers.

Videos showing the supposed "confessions" of captured hit men, airing allegations of corruption by government officials and allegedly identifying the mysterious leader of the Juárez drug cartel for the state of Chihuahua can all be found on popular Web sites such as YouTube.com.

Mexican drug traffickers and others have used videos posted online, often accompanied to the music of

narco-corridos, to taunt rivals, brag and pay homage to cartel leaders for years.

But in recent months, other videos have been popping up in the Internet that name allegedly corrupt police and government officials in Juárez and Chihuahua state.

"Ya basta de tantos ejecutados. Ya basta de tantos muertos inocentes. Ya basta de tanto dolor en Juaritos," stated text saying "enough" to the executions, innocent victims and the pain in Juárez on a video claiming to have been posted by a small group of honest police.

The video, which is mostly text set to music,
lists the names of police supervisors allegedly paid $5,000 a month to look the other way. It ends by stating that Chihuahua residents should protect themselves. "La policia no existe." (The police doesn't exist).
The Web postings come as Juárez has been rocked by nearly 400 homicides, including the deaths of more than a dozen police officers, including two killed over the weekend.

Tuesday evening, two men were found slain in the Loma Blanca area on the outskirts of Juárez. A sign was left behind stating that the executions of people linked to a drug trafficker would continue.

Last week, an e-mail spread around the borderland warning people to avoid going out in Juárez because the weekend would be the "bloodiest and deadliest" in city history with executions and shootings in the streets. The e-mail had some validity as the city recorded about 25 homicides in the past few days and resulted in fewer people crossing the border and caused the closing of shops and nightclubs.

The truth of any information posted online is difficult to gauge. The ones doing the postings often use aliases. And forums linked to the videos are often filled with curse-laden arguments and threats by people claiming the superiority of one drug gang over the other.

"All that stuff is mostly propaganda," said Matthew Taylor spokesman for the El Paso division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "The DEA doesn't have an opinion one way or the other on what's on the Internet."

Many of the Juárez-related videos name a man known as "JL" alias "Ledesma" alias "El Dos Letras" (Two Letters), who is reputed to be the top lieutenant of the drug cartel allegedly run by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.

A high-ranking U.S. anti-narcotics official had previously said that the cartels use the Internet to spread information and misinformation.

However, "JL" was one of the suspected cartel lieutenants the official named. The other suspected lieutenant named was Pedro Sanchez, aka "El Sol" aka El Tigre," who was captured earlier this month by Mexican soldiers after a shootout in Parral, Chihuahua.

FBI spokeswoman Special Agent Andrea Simmons said that the posting of videos related to drug traffickers is part of a trend also seen by criminal groups in the United States and that law enforcement is watching.

"We try to use any kind of tool that is publicly available to our advantage. Nationwide, we have seen groups like gangs post information about themselves" online, Simmons said. She added that the FBI was not investigating the killings in Juárez.

Members of street gangs -- including those in El Paso -- can regularly be found posing with guns, throwing hand signs and boasting on their personal Web pages, such as MySpace.com.

"As the technology increases," Simmons said, "the bad guys use the technology -- use the technology just as the good guys do."

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102.

Juárez violence forum


The violence in Juárez and the Merida Initiative, the U.S. plan to help pay for anti-narcotics work in Mexico, will be topics of a panel discussion at 10 a.m. today at the University of Texas at El Paso.

The discussion featuring UTEP professors and government officials will take place in the University Suite on the third floor of the Union East.

The event is open to the public. Parking is available in the UTEP Parking Garage at Sun Bowl Drive and University Avenue.






http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_9399624

The $1.4 BILLION so-called 'Merida Initiative', TRANSLATING to ANOTHER way for Mexico to SUCK us dry, [..and it WILL happen again..! ], will be THE TOPIC of a BIASED panel discussion at 10 a.m. TODAY ..at the University of Texas at El Paso..!

SO CITIZENS: GET YOUR BUTTS over there and STAND UP FOR America..!

The ONE sided discussion, featuring UTEP so-called professors and CORRUPT so-called government officials, not to mention the so-called 'Hispanic advocates', will take place in the University Suite on the third floor of the Union East.

The event is open to the PUBLIC, so rest assured, you'll find ALL the above there..! ..AND, you'll have to PAY for parking ..at the UTEP Parking Garage at Sun Bowl Drive and University Avenue.

NO..! we're not going to ‘PAY’ ..or ANYTHING of the sort..!!

$40 BILLION.. leaves the USA, [$20 BILLION just from CA], in the form of remittances, EVERY YEAR..!

Illegal aliens, primarily from MEXICO, have SUCKED and DILUTED the USA..

..ALMOST, to DEATH..!

THEY, their EQUALLY GUILTY employers, AND the so-called ‘Hispanic Advocates’, ALL need to be IMPRISONED..!

..the criminals who have the LEAST violent records should be employed IN that prison, PAYING their way through it..!

..and if they’ve PAID up for their stay in prison, then they need to be PAYING back TO the citizens of the USA, possibly to even BUILD THAT FENCE..!!

..ALL of the above, can continue to ROT in prison, PAYING BACK to the citizen VICTIMS..!

AFTER their sentences are fulfilled, SECOND time offenders, INCLUDING the American traitors, WILL BE DEPORTED..!!

NEVER to return..

PERIOD..!!

Americans have ‘PAID’ dearly, just in LIVES lost..! ..Murdered, AND Killed BY illegal aliens..!

25 Americans DIE at the hands of illegal aliens..

EVERYDAY..!