Video threatens to disclose Zetas allies

VERACRUZ, Mexico – An Internet video is threatening Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel with exposure of its allies in the local police and news media this week unless the gang frees a kidnapped member of the international hacker movement known as “Anonymous.”

The YouTube message, which claims to be from Anonymous, says the group is “tired of the criminal group the Zetas, which is dedicated to kidnapping, stealing and extortion,” and threatens to fight back with information instead of weapons.

It said it knows of police officers, journalists, taxi drivers and others working with the Zetas.

The video refers to an unidentified person kidnapped in the coastal city of Veracruz, and says: “You have made a great mistake by taking one of us. Free him.”

The hacker group, which has claimed responsibility for attacks on corporate and government websites worldwide, supposedly will act Friday if the kidnapped activist is not freed or is harmed, according to the message.

“We cannot defend ourselves with weapons, but we can with their cars, houses, bars,” the message adds, apparently alluding to properties owned by cartel supporters. “It’s not difficult. We know who they are and where they are are.”

An official with the Veracruz state attorney general’s office, who could not be named because he was not authorized to speak on the record, said the office could not confirm video’s authenticity or the case of the kidnapping.

Veracruz, an oil state on the Gulf of Mexico, has seen a spike in drug violence in recent months in what authorities say is a battle between the Zetas drug cartel and its rivals.