According to sociology professor Howard Campbell, a torture video was the beginning of the online Mexican drug war: In 2005 a YouTube film made the rounds that showed a killer interrogating and torturing four members of the Zetas. “It was the first big social media event and seemed to imitate the style of Al-Qaida”, recalls Campbell, a member of the faculty at the University of Texas in El Paso who specialises in research into the Mexican drug trade. “The phenomenon exploded and spread like wildfire – today there are thousands of similar YouTube videos and other types of social media use.”

Like terror organisations, the cartels take advantage of the viral effect of narco propaganda on the Internet: Killer commandos document murders on smartphones or professional cameras, saw the heads off opponents in front of a running camera, then post the bloody photos and videos themselves or pass them on the narcoblogs that publish material from the drug war. Before they are killed, captured rivals are often forced to confess – about whom they have kidnapped and killed, a catalogue of their crimes. “It is a kind of political statement and often about the influence of the cartel in a certain region,” Campbell explains. “The narcos want to show that they are the good guys fighting  the forces of evil; that they protect society from its foes who have committed truly heinous acts.”

Like terror organisations, the cartels take advantage of the viral effect of narco propaganda on the Internet. 

The head of the Knights Templar, “La Tuta”, regularly posts PR videos on YouTube that get hundreds of thousands of hits. The Sinaloa cartel used YouTube videos to document the aid it delivered to an area destroyed by a storm. They even opened an Instagram channel for a while. Innumerable Facebook fan pages celebrate the cartels. Their followers include harmless young people who glorify the narco lifestyle, but also true cartel members. 

But social networks like Facebook, Hi5 and MySpace are more than just a propaganda tool for the cartels: They recruit new members, from outside the Mexican border as well, use Facebook pages to talk young women into a face-to-face meeting who are later forced into prostitution, and mine the net for kidnapping victims and firms from whom protection money can be extorted.  

The number of kidnappings of communications experts has risen sharply.

By now online sales complement the classic drug channels: “All the large cartels are active on the deep web and have understood the importance of Bitcoin”, says hacker Carlo Martinez, who does not wish to provide his real name because of security concerns. “The cartels use the deep web primarily for narcomenudeo, selling small quantities of drugs, but also as a showplace for large deliveries.” Traders offer their wares in drug marketplaces, like the “Silk Road” closed down by the FBI and its successors, and in hidden forums. Like one narco who put 500 kilos of marihuana up for sale.  Cartel members often communicate in code, posting about “a truck full of lemons”, for example. In addition to the drug trade, the cartels also complete sensitive deals like trafficking in organs and human beings on the darknet.  The criminals use the virtual currency Bitcoin to hide the transaction pathways, and encrypt their communication using PGP, Tor, or apps like Redphone. 

In Martinez’s view, the Mexican cartels have become “highly cyber-competent”. While many foot soldiers are young, uneducated men from rural areas, every cartel also has clever minds as well. If the IT talent pool at their disposal is not enough, experts are hired or kidnapped. 

According to Mexican political magazine Proceso, the number of kidnappings of communications experts has risen sharply since 2009. Around 30 members of telecommunications companies like Networkers, Nextel and IBM have disappeared so far. In 2010, a young programmer was recruited by a company in Mexico City for an IT job – and ended up being forced to complete a project for drug boss “La Barbie”. 

The Mexican government is also entering the digital arms race, monitoring social networks, smuggling undercover agents into the darknet. The Mexican secret service CISEN recruits talented hackers as students and trains them for its own purposes – around 30 to 40 IT experts currently hack for the state. In contrast the Mexican cyberpolice is just five hackers strong. They focus on human trafficking and child pornography, by combing through Facebook groups for example. 

They are complemented by local IT units in some states – though they are often small or overwhelmed, or working for the cartel themselves. In Gómez Palacio in the state of Durango, the Cártel del Poniente controlled the C4 Unit, the police intelligence and command center, until around the end of January 2013, as reported by an informant to Proceso magazine. 

Digital show offs like killer "Chino Ántrax" who brag on social networks are a boon for investigators. 

Digital show offs like killer "Chino Ántrax" who brag on social networks are a boon for investigators. He left a digital trail that led to his capture: In December 2013, Ántrax was arrested at the Amsterdam airport travelling under the pseudonym Norberto Sicairos García. He was, as always, wearing his skull ring. In the US border city San Diego the "Ántrax" troop is now standing trial. Hacker Martinez still believes that the government is playing catch-up and still does not have enough cyber skills: “Unfortunately the dark side is still way ahead of the game in Mexico.”