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Mexican drug war finds battle ground on YouTube

13 February 2007 14:06 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 13 comments

A vicious and deadly drug gang war in Mexico has found its web presence in Google Inc.'s YouTube video sharing service. Rivals are using the site to taunt one another and post extreme videos which include footage of murders. Among the videos posted is one of a man being shot in the head, and has gained 280,000 views.

YouTube has made it clear in the past that it does not tolerate footage of sick or illegal acts. A YouTube spokesperson said however, that for the site to be kept clean, users have to flag the material as inappropriate to alert the company.

The drug war in question is between the Gulf Cartel from northeastern Mexico and Sinaloa-based traffickers. On some of the posted videos, users comment in Spanish about Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, head of the Sinaloa-based gang, and rival Osiel Cardenas, the Gulf Cartel's leader. One comment offers about $4,500 to anyone who has killed a member of The Zetas if they show proof "via photo, video or presenting the body."

"The messages give the impression that members of organized crime are participating," Jose Luis Manjarrez, a spokesman for Mexico's attorney general's office, said. "We can't rule out, but neither can we be totally sure, that this is being used as a form of communication by organized crime." He said that the Mexican police are currently monitoring the pages.

Source:
Reuters

Permalink to this article

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Discuss this article!
al_he_79 (Newbie) 13 February 2007 15:36
this is crazy [ + quote]
neo1000 (Junior Member) 13 February 2007 16:37
And happens everyday here in mexico. [ + quote]
diableria (Inactive) 13 February 2007 19:55
thats cool, i wish they had the links. i hate snitches who report the videos to youtube stuff, they have nothing better to do [ + quote]
solarf (Member) 14 February 2007 7:01
I live in south Texas about 20 minutes from the border and this happens everyother day. Its always in the news, so lame. [ + quote]
BludRayne (Junior Member) 14 February 2007 7:24
If drugs were legalized, these gangs would cease to exist. [ + quote]
Rikoshay (Member) 14 February 2007 8:19
If drugs were legalized, we would all be homeless :D [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 14 February 2007 8:19
duckNrun (Member) 14 February 2007 8:30
@ Rikoshay: If drugs were legalized, we would all be homeless Wow you sound like those people back in the days of alcohol prohibition speaking doom and gloom. We all know that since the end of prohibition alcohol gangs and alcohol warfare continued to spread across the nation subverting the local police, recruiting kids to drop out of school and be under age lookouts and forcing all us 'good decent' abstainers into becoming homeless... Oh wait... that didn't happen! What did happen is that the gangs moved onto their other money making schemes (which were illegal before and continued to be illegal after the end of prohibition) and the governemt ended the countless deaths and violence over a substance that was in so high demand that people wouold take insane risks to supply it. Look at the ways the 'war on alcohol' and the 'war on drugs' produce the same results. When people do not learn from history they are doomed to repeat it. Right now we are making room in prisons by releasing murderes, child molesters, rapists, armed robbers so we have the prison space to house the MOST EVIL criminal of them all... THE POT SMOKER/GROWER Yep. Give me a thief, murdered, rapist or child molester living next door to me anyday just protect me from all those pot smokers! [ + quote]
Gradical (Junior Member) 14 February 2007 10:03
Hey Duck Nrun! i find your post extremely racist!! we prefer the term: Groovy People, not Pot smokers ;) [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 14 February 2007 14:08
This is wat they mean by the drug war becoming hi-tech. :) [ + quote]
Rikoshay (Member) 14 February 2007 15:36
OK... [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 14 February 2007 15:38
jhackg0d (Newbie) 14 February 2007 15:58
I'm with DuckNRun In fact in the next five years you'll probably see many States passing state initiatives that allow for small amounts of posession of marijuana to be legal. We're probably still a long way from cocaine being legal. DuckNRun... you all for legalizing Coke? [ + quote]
Gradical (Junior Member) 15 February 2007 10:25
WHAT!!!?? Legalize cocaine!!!??? WTF are you talking about!!! where are the polititians going to make money? like jobs and stuff?? you should be more thoughtful, people live from that, its not even Funy! [ + quote]
SamNz (Newbie) 15 February 2007 21:07
arrrhhh a pot smoker im so afraid of there lazyness and complete lack of motovation arrrhhhh [ + quote]