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Anonymous Squares Off Against a Mexican Drug Cartel
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Online-hackers-threaten-to-expose-cartel-secrets-2242068.php
An international group of online hackers is warning a Mexican drug cartel to release one of its members, kidnapped from a street protest, or it will publish the identities and addresses of the syndicate's associates, from corrupt police to taxi drivers, as well as reveal the syndicates' businesses.So yeah, this could get real serious if the Anons involved aren't just trying to psyche the cartel out.
The vow is a bizarre cyber twist to Mexico's ongoing drug war, as a group that has no guns is squaring off against the Zetas, a cartel blamed for thousands of deaths as well as introducing beheadings and other frightening brutality.
"You made a huge mistake by taking one of us. Release him," says a masked man in a video posted online on behalf of the group, Anonymous.
"We cannot defend ourselves with a weapon … but we can do this with their cars, homes, bars, brothels and everything else in their possession," says the man, who is wearing a suit and tie.
"It won't be difficult; we all know who they are and where they are located," says the man, who underlines the group's international ties by speaking Spanish with the accent of a Spaniard while using Mexican slang.
He also implies that the group will expose mainstream journalists who are somehow in cahoots with the Zetas by writing negative articles about the military, the country's biggest fist in the drug war.
"We demand his release," says the Anonymous spokesman, who is wearing a mask like the one worn by the shadowy revolutionary character in the movie V for Vendetta, which came out in 2006. "If anything happens to him, you sons of (expletive) will always remember this upcoming November 5."
The person reportedly kidnapped is not named, and the video does not share information about the kidnapping other than that it occurred in the Mexican state of Veracruz during a street protest.
Anonymous draws its roots from an online forum dedicated to bringing sensitive government documents and other material to light.
If Anonymous can make good on its threats to publish names, it will "most certainly" lead to more deaths and could leave bloggers and others open to reprisal attacks by the cartel, contends Stratfor, an Austin-based global intelligence company.
"In this viral world on the Internet, it shows how much damage could be done with just one statement on the Web," said Fred Burton of Stratfor, which published a report Friday that probes the implications of the cartel drawing the activists' ire.
Mike Vigil, the retired head of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the Zetas must take Anonymous seriously.
"It is a gutsy move," Vigil said. "By publishing the names, they identify them to rivals, and trust me, they will go after them."
Comments
In other words, I say to the cartel:
Deal With It.
In this case, I'd release all the information I had and flee the country.
Yukon territory in Canada would be a safe bet, but since the cartels are in cahoots with a ton of coyotes, it's not likely that they'd make it to the US, let alone the frosty north.
It's a no-win situation. The cartels are effectively an army, and they have no rules of engagement and no accountability. Unscrupulous jackholes armed to the teeth ruling a terrified populace.
At this point, though, I think anything that makes some kind of difference is worth trying.
I suppose if you made it across the border and north before they ID'ed you, you could probably get away, if you crossed over to Russia - which you could do with a chartered light plane - and then down into china, you'd do okay. Admittedly, moving to a different continent might not be necessary, but I like the idea of having a lot of distance - if you're going to vanish and they're going to chase you, you want them to have a very, very long chase. The biggest hurdle would be that first border crossing, and being smart - because the worst thing for these guys is not that they will be running till it all blows over, they're going to be running until the day they die. They didn't know what they were getting into, and now they're about to be bent over and fucked by it.