WEB RIDDLED WITH DRUG CARTEL VIDEOS, MESSAGES

Rival Gangs Using Sites Such As YouTube to Intimidate,
Recruit

The violence among Mexican drug cartels is not filling just the
streets of Mexican border towns: It's also spilling into gruesome
online videos and chat rooms.

The videos on YouTube and Mexican-based sites are polished --
professional singers croon about cartel leaders while images of
murdered victims fade one into the next. In the comment area, those
loyal to the opposing cartels trade insults and threats.

Such videos are used to intimidate enemies and recruit members by
touting "virtues" of cartel leaders, says Scott Stewart, vice
president of tactical intelligence for Stratfor, a Texas-based
global-intelligence company.

Howard Campbell, an anthropologist at the University of Texas-El Paso
who studies border issues, says the videos also signal how the cartels
have evolved from pure moneymaking ventures to sophisticated groups
with political agendas.

One YouTube video sympathetic to the Sinaloa Cartel opens with white
lettering: "This is what happens to all my enemies." A singer launches
into an up-tempo song against a montage of images: slain police
officers, bullet-ridden police cruisers, shell casings, crumpled bodies.

Victoria Grand, head of policy for YouTube, says company officials
have seen the cartel videos on their website but would not comment on
specific videos.

She says YouTube does remove graphic, violent video if other users
flag it as offensive and it lacks documentary or educational purposes.
"If the video is clearly violent and the purpose is to shock or
disgust, we will remove it," she says. YouTube officials have alerted
law enforcement agencies to criminal activity posted on the site, she
says.

The cartel videos emerged in 2005, soon after videos of foreigners
being beheaded in Iraq appeared on insurgent websites, says Kent
Paterson, editor of Frontera NorteSur, a New Mexico-based online news
service, who follows the videos.

Early efforts showed prisoners bound and blindfolded, surrounded by
armed guards. A declaration was read and the prisoner was executed,
often by beheading -- mirroring the jihadist videos emerging from
Iraq, Paterson says.

These were removed from sites such as YouTube. The cartels gradually
replaced them with more sophisticated, better-produced efforts,
Paterson says.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration monitors the videos for clues
about the cartels and potential use as evidence in prosecutions, says
Garrison Courtney, a DEA spokesman. "It's really changed ... how we
target the cartels," he says. The cartels "absolutely" post videos and
have an online presence, he says, though some followers or imposters
also post on their behalf.

President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano have
pledged to help stop the violence. Mexico's government says cartel
violence killed 6,290 people across Mexico last year and more than
1,000 in the first eight weeks of 2009.

Mexican officials study the videos and chats for hints about future
killings, says Sergio Belmonte Almeida, a spokesman for Ciudad Juarez,
on the border at the center of the violence.

In December, a member of the powerful Juarez Cartel entered a
Mexican-based chat room and sparred with someone defending a rival
cartel, Almeida says.

"Wait for the little gift we're going to leave for you tomorrow
morning," the Juarez Cartel chatter warned, Almeida says.

The next day, he says, two decapitated heads were found in a large
cooking pot outside Juarez.