Cellphone chats have become death sentences in the continuing, bloody factional war inside Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel.

Cartel gunmen stop youths on the street or in their cars and demand their phones. If they find a contact who’s a member of a rival faction, a chat with a wrong word or a photo with the wrong person, the phone owner is dead.

Then, they’ll go after everyone on that person’s contact list, forming a potential chain of kidnapping, torture and death. That has left residents of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, afraid to even leave home at night, much less visit towns a few miles away where many have weekend retreats.

“You can’t go five minutes out of the city, … not even in daylight,” said Ismael Bojórquez, a veteran journalist in Culiacan. “Why? Because the narcos have set up roadblocks and they stop you and search through your cellphone.”

MBFC
Archive

      • NoFuckingWaynado@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        18 days ago

        Not talking about extortion, kidnapping, murder. If an organization can become the dominant political party of an entire country with the stated goal of destroying another country or keeping girls out of school or men must have beards, then why not produce and export drugs.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          18 days ago

          So a narco state. It hasn’t happened there, because Mexico still has the semblance of a functioning government (despite mayors getting murdered within weeks of getting elected). I don’t think it’s quite there, but it could very much end up there.

  • Letstakealook@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    18 days ago

    This is terrible and disgusting. These cartels have gotten progressively worse over the years, at what point does this shit stop. Another nightmare created by the “War on Drugs.”

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      18 days ago

      it will stop whenever we stop demonizing people for wanting a temporary escape from this shitty fucking world.

      • blackn1ght@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        18 days ago

        Unfortunately I don’t think it will. These fucks have already moved into different “markets” than drugs, they’ll continue regardless.