Anonymous Takes On a Mexican Drug Cartel

New submitter NarcoTraficante writes "After one of their members was kidnapped in Veracruz, Mexico by the Zetas drug cartel, Mexican Anonymous members have issued an ultimatum to the Zetas in a recently posted YouTube video. The video demands the release of the kidnapped member and threatens to publish information of cartel members and affiliates in Veracruz if the victim is not released by November 5. The Houston Chronicle article warns that there will be bloodshed if Anonymous publishes information on the Zeta's operations, either perpetrated by rival cartels or reprisal attacks by the Zetas themselves."

already attacked

[Anonymous Coward]

There's already been one politician web page defaced denouncing him as a Zeta.
http://sdpnoticias.com/nota/216899/Anonymous_hackea_sitio_de_presunto_funcionario_involucrado_con_el_narco

Re:Identifying what exactly?

[Daniel_is_Legnd]

They claim to have the identities of corrupt police officers and journalists. That could prove more useful.

Re:News For Nerds

[Anonymous Coward]

An online group wants to take on a real-life drug cartel. This is definitely news for nerds you dumb fuck.

Re:Drug Cartels

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Are you unfamiliar with the "Mérida Initiative"("Plan Mexico" to skeptics)? For reasons, um, wholly unrelated to that incident where the border between Mexico and the US shifted abruptly some time back, Mexico takes considerable offense at the idea of US troops on its soil. We've settled for rolling out just about all the various instruments of policy-by-proxy we have available there and elsewhere in Latin America(Plan Columbia, Central American Regional Security Initiative, Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, likely the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in some capacity)

We've carefully avoided doing anything terribly effective; because Prohibition 2.0 is Going Just Fine Thanks For Asking; but unless our plans involve a shooting war with Mexico, an overt military presence in the area seems unlikely(and dubiously productive, most drug production is protected by means other than brute force, which makes soldiers less useful than they might be).

Re:Identifying what exactly?

[Calibax]

This has nothing to do with the USA (assuming that's what you meant by "we"). The threat is that they will publish a list of police officers, politicians journalists, etc. aligned with the Zetas. The competing cartels then kill them in the hope of weakening the Zetas - I don't think they are strong on needing proof.

Anonymous is threatening the Zetas with exposure to get their member released, they aren't threatening all the cartels.

Re:Identifying what exactly?

[Kyusaku Natsume]

You can pic any issue of Proceso magazine to read about corruption in Mexico, the Anonymous list will be used or can be used to falsely flag people in the payroll of cartels. We have already big troubles with the anonymous report of innocent people as members of cartels or kidnappers, we don't need a list made by script kiddies. My grandmother was falsely accused of being a kidnapper and had her house stormed by the army, my uncle beaten and my cousin sent to the hospital. In the end, it appeared that the ones doing the tip were the actual kidnappers to make a big fuss in my grandmother's small town were she is a loved and respected citizen, the kidnappers got away. Due process exist for a very good reason, laws were not written by tree hugging hippies, they were wrote by victorious revolutionaries that put their life in the line to make a better society.

Zeta Response

[starmonkey]

I wish Anonymous the best of luck. At best, they can release a few names and cut some heads off the Hydra. They will be replaced by equally corrupted politicians, policemen, journalists, etc. They might even be replaced by people that will refuse to be corrupted, at first, until they are offered the choice of plata o plomo (silver or lead = become corrupted or die). Most likely, though, they will find out which kidnap victim is being referred-to, torture him until he names names, then follow the chain of names, torturing them and their families, and leave them all hanging from bridges. Honestly, I can't see how this could possibly be a good move. The best move is to pay the ransom or forget about your friend, instead of getting him tortured to death.

Re:Identifying what exactly?

[Gripp]

He does have a point. We declared the war on drugs. No one else. And barring the war drugs, legit pharmaceutical companies would be who provided the dugs (of a much higher quality) - NOT cartels. Cartels wouldn't have a chance at even competing with big business
Add to that both the Netherlands and Portugal who have (basically) stopped the war on drugs, and have found that their drug problems drastically decreased. (You can start here if you aren't already aware of what i'm trying to explain: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html [time.com]) and it should be clear that we are definitely partly to blame for these problems. i suppose human nature and greed would be where the rest of the blame falls....