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Narcovideo
What the Mexican drug cartels like to post to say "Look how tough we are!"
Summary
Narcovideos are little videos spammed on YouTube or other sites on the internets by Mexican drug cartels (the prefix "narco" refers to anything related to the Mexican drug trade). The cartels make the videos to show how they are internet tough guys. In the videos you see plenty of "sicarios" (thugs) holding "sicarios" from rival cartels hostage and forcing them to make confessions. The masked "sicarios" flash their weapons, which they obtained from the United States, and their captives on camera. In the NSFW ones the kidnappers film themselves torturing and/or killing their captive(s). Some NSFW narcovideos depict already dead bodies with their killers visible.
Anonymous released a video of its own against the Zeta cartel, threatening to release information stating photographs, names, and home addresses of supporters of the cartel could be published if Anonymous deems it "necessary."
Origins
The videos began in Mexico when the cartels bickered over who gets to poison idiotic American teenagers with crack and heroin. The cartel thugs not only killed each other, but they also began targeting police. To show how tough they are, they post videos to intimidate other people and to show how they own the internets (even though they don't).
Current status
Currently they act as commercials for the cartels who film them. No really, Mexican drug cartels are businesses. In commercials a legitimate company promotes itself and tears down its competitors. Mexican cartels do the same things in these videos; they promote themselves and tear down their competitors. Of course these videos are also attempts to intimidate their competitors and the general public.
Facts
- The videos come from all of the cartels, including:
Beltrán Leyva Cartel, controlled by the four Beltrán Leyva brothers
La Familia Michoacana, from the state of Michoacán
Gulf Cartel, from Matamoros
Juárez Cartel, based in Ciudad Juárez and headed by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes - "La Línea" is the armed wing of the cartel
Sinaloa Cartel, based in the state of Sinaloa and headed by Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, ranked by Forbes as one of the richest men in the world
Tijuana Cartel, based in Tijuana and headed by the Arellano-Félix family
Los Zetas Cartel - After some Mexicans received military training in the US, they came home to Mexico and found that Gulf Cartel narcos could pay them more than the Mexican authorities, so they joined the Gulf Cartel. Now "Los Zetas" are their own cartel - The zetas tend to get picked on... a lot... and you see lots of videos like "Matando Zetas" (killing Zetas) and "Zetas antes de matarlos" (Zetas before their being killed)
Los Negros was at first a part of the Sinaloa Cartel, then a part of the Beltrán Leyva cartle, then the military wing of La Barbie's organization. It ended after La Barbie got partyvanned
- These videos can be found on many video sharing websites, like YouTube, Liveleak, and Youku - NFSW videos are posted on other websites, including El Blog del Narco
- Some videos have "narcocorridos" (annoying songs glorifying narcotraffickers and drug dealers) - the people who write narcocorridos have a habit of being killed
- If the perpetrators have their heads visible, they always wear ski masks, since they do not want to be identified (by law enforcement, as they do not want to be partyvanned, and by rivals, as they do not want to be killed out of revenge) - You can tell who the victims are, as the victims are not masked - In other videos the perpetrators do not have their heads visible at all - only their arms and hands
- In Spanish slang "soltando la sopa" means "spilling the beans" - "Sicarios" do that a lot in narcovideos
- Often the people in the videos are asked "¿Para quién trabajas?" (Who do you work for?)
Images
 A drug cartel catches an extortionist in Ciudad Juárez |
 If you decide to go up against the cartels, make sure you do a good job keeping yourself Anonymous, or else you may be a star of your own narcovideo |
 If you look carefully, you'll see two other masked men |
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 This video, through repeated YouTube posts, got over 500,000 hits |
 Moments later, the men surrounding Manuel Méndez Leyva stab him in the side and then slowly cut his head off, as he struggles to breathe |
 Blooper moment! He's not looking at the right place! |
 YouTube is a popular destination for narcovideos - "Matando Zetas" means "Killing Zetas" |
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Videos
aundres1: "The funny thing is, is that the federal cops are trying to look all hard lol"
(the following are responses to aundres1)
jbct61: "There area no Federal Cops in this video.."
Marihuanin: "Those are not federal cops, they belong to "El Cartel del Golfo""
1CHUCKZ4: "go to mundonar.com, you'll see those fools up dere aint cops"
The video description says: Video showing the decapitation of a narcotrafficker with the alias "El Gordo" ("the fatty"), pusher of the honey cartel
The note says: "This is what will happen to all of you who mess with us and follow your "Commandate Tiguer" ("Commander Tigger") - Attn: Plaza Sésamo (Sesame Street)
Related Pages
External Links
You can find additional phenomena here.
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