Following the kidnapping of a mexican street protester, mexican hackers under the anonymous banner have threatened to publish the identities and addresses of the syndicate's associates.
"You made a huge mistake by taking one of us. Release him," says the masked man in this spanish video.
Translation:
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We want you to know that one of our members has been kidnapped during #opPaperstorm in our city. We demand his liberation. [..] We want the army and the marines to know that we are tired of the criminal group Los Zetas that kidnap, steal and extortion in different forms [..] We are tired of the journalists and newspapers of Jalapa, Veracruz, Córdoba and Orizaba that always throw sh*t to honest authorities like the military and marines. We are tired of taxi drivers, commanders and polizetas of the municipalities of Córdoba, Xalapa, Orizaba, Nogales and Río Balnco. For the moment we won't publish the names and photographs of taxi drivers, journalists or newspapers, or police, but if it becomes necessary we will even publish their addresses to see if the government detains them. [..] We all know who they are and where they are. You made a mistake in taking one of us, release him and if something happens to him, you sons of a b****es will remember the 5th of November.
Mike Vigil, a retired head of international operations for the DEA said following this announcement: "the Zetas Cartel needs to take Anonymous seriously because by publishing the names they identify the Zetas Cartel members to rivals and they will go after them."
Sounds like dangerous waters, but still kinda nice to see someone making a stand.
Here's the source
[update]
Sm0k34n0n has tweeted that the operation is cancelled. Explaining the cancellation in this article.
Translation:
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In an interview with MILLENNIUM, two members of Anonymous, and Skill3r GlynissParoubek be contacted to explain the circumstances:
Why was decided to cancel the operation?
We can not be a reckless administrators to condemn to death those who participate, we have talked and discussed extensively by all and it was decided to remove it.
So why issue threats?
"It's very easy to make a video on behalf of Anonymous and launch air threats, but to think, plan and evaluate the pros and cons is another story," they said.
What's next?
"They continue other operations, but for now we hope to make clear that the cartel operation is false."
Why was decided to cancel the operation?
We can not be a reckless administrators to condemn to death those who participate, we have talked and discussed extensively by all and it was decided to remove it.
So why issue threats?
"It's very easy to make a video on behalf of Anonymous and launch air threats, but to think, plan and evaluate the pros and cons is another story," they said.
What's next?
"They continue other operations, but for now we hope to make clear that the cartel operation is false."
Former head of LulzSec AnonymousSabu tweeted in response:
"Thanks for pushing the op, but now that you've cleaned your hands of it--move on with your life,"
In another post he said that ""#OpCartel is very much alive and like I said to others in private our war is on corruption on both sides of the spectrum," referring to the war on drugs including both the Drug Enforcement Administration as well as the Mexican cartels.
Additional reading:
An Open Source Analysis of the Anonymous - Los Zetas Op
InformationWeek
GlobalVoice (Thanks for the translations)