Mexican Breathalyzer Checkpoints Shared On Twitter

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by: Tom Doerr Total views: 7 Word Count: 343 Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 Time: 6:18 PM 0 comments

Mexicans are now using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to share information to avoid police checkpoints and breathalyzer stops. Police believe the social networking sites have also been used in the kidnapping of the relatives of businessmen and politicians by helping identify the families of a high profile individual and monitoring their daily activity.

Users of the popular social networking sites have irritated the authorities by using twitter to alert one another of the locations of breathalyzer checkpoints, they use the name @anitaa_df to message each other and a similar tactic is now being used by drug dealers.

Ghaleb Krame, Mexican security official stated "Twitter is a serious problem not only to Mexican law-enforcement agencies but to any law or intelligence agencies all over the world, criminals, drug cartels and terrorist cells are getting more sophisticated in their methods of communication."

Social networks have been used by cartels using coded terms and phrases to evade suspicion when communicating with each other. The networks have also been used to provoke fear amongst communities. Reynosa, a town which has been bloodied by the acts of gang violence, was terrorized by members of a cartel spreading messages. One message read; "The largest scheduled shootout in the history of Reynosa will be tomorrow or Sunday, send this message to people you trust that tomorrow a convoy of 60 trucks full of cartel hit men from the Michoacan Family together with members of the Gulf Cartel are coming to take the city and take everyone out alive or dead!"

The Mexican government has recently drafted a bill which allows the regulation and monitoring of the use of social networks in Mexico. Under the new bill, helping others break or avoid the law by sharing information is now a criminal act. Authorities insist the bill is not aimed at the social networks themselves, only the users of them but it has been controversial in Mexico as many users have slammed it as an excuse to act as Big Brother.



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The networking has been used to avoid breathalyzers as drivers do not want a drink driving ban as adriving offence in Mexico holds a strong penalty.


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