Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Narcos Use “WhatsApp”

Borderland Beat posted by Bjeff material from EL Siglo Durango & Wired
Three decades ago, a Ukrainian teenager immigrated to the United States. He hardly spoke English. Along with his mother and grandmother they relied on a social program for help with their rent on a 2 bedroom apartment.

Jan Koum attended college, majoring in computer science. Five years ago, along with American Brian Acton, he invented WhatsApp.

 
The WhatsApp application to send text messages, photos, videos and audios, recently  sold to Facebook for 19 billion dollars It is estimated that each day 700 million photos and 100 million videos are sent by  the app.

Mexican drug traffickers, always using the latest technology to evade the authorities have started using WhatsApp as its new mode in communication. 

A few months ago, according to intelligence reports from the federal government, the fugitive Rafael Caro Quintero, a former leader of the Guadalajara cartel, used this application to send a video message to one of Mexico's most powerful kingpins: Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias-“El Mencho”- the visible head of the criminal organization known as the New Generation Jalisco Cartel. 

Caro Quintero was awarded his freedom from prison, after 28 years, and little fanfare he walked out the prison gates a free man. August 9, 2013.  

Later, the government “realized” their error, as he is a wanted man in the United States, and although he is again wanted for recapture, he is long gone. 

After his release,  he entered into communication with several senior members of the drug world as "The Mencho" and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, who was still was on the run. 

Communication with Mencho was using WhatsApp; with Chapo he used a more personal method.&

The message was the same for both: I do not want to get into the business, I want to live a quiet life in my old age, posing no threat to anyone and if possible if they could provide protection for him.
Caro Quintero is not the only drug lord taking advantage of the digital age.

Just weeks ago, the elite group that are looking for Servando Gómez Martínez, leader of the Knights Templar cartel, discovered a digital "memo" sent by "La Tuta" to Fernando Cruz Mendoza "Tena", who allegedly was his chief of assassins, who he is alienated, judging by intelligence reports. 

In the audio, he strongly supports confrontation with their rivals in the drug world,  AUC and the authorities. He suggests concrete actions of war in the region of Michoacán where he has influence, and organizational restructuring of the Templarios as  a "group of friends" looking after each area and proposes a new treatment for mining companies with shares of extortion lower than those charged them when they had complete control over Michoacán.


However…Now WhatsApp has implemented an end-to-end encryption making it nearly impossible to read  users messages
WhatsApp is following through on that anti-snooping promise at an unprecedented scale.
On Tuesday, WhatsApp announced that it’s implementing end-to-end encryption, an upgrade to its privacy protections that makes it nearly impossible for anyone to read users’ messages—even the company itself. 

WhatsApp will integrate the open-source software Textsecure, created by privacy-focused non-profit Open Whisper Systems, which scrambles messages with a cryptographic key that only the user can access and never leaves his or her device. The result is practically uncrackable encryption for hundreds of millions of phones and tablets that have WhatsApp installed—by some measures the world’s largest-ever implementation of this standard of encryption in a messaging service.

“Whatsapp is integrating Textsecure into the most popular messaging app in the world, where people exchange billions of messages a day,” says Moxie Marlinspike, Open Whisper System’s creator and a well known software developer in the cryptography community. “I do think this is the largest deployment of end-to-end encryption ever.”


Textsecure has actually already been quietly encrypting WhatsApp messages between Android devices for a week. The new encryption scheme means WhatsApp messages will now travel all the way to the recipients’ device before being decrypted, rather than merely being encrypted between the user’s device and Whatsapp’s server. 

The change is nearly invisible, though Marlinspike says WhatsApp will soon add a feature to allow users to verify each others’ identities based on their cryptographic key, a defense against man-in-the-middle attacks that intercept conversations. “Ordinary users won’t know the difference,” says Marlinspike. “It’s totally frictionless.”

“This is the largest deployment of end-to-end encryption ever.”
WhatsApp’s rollout of strong encryption to hundreds of millions of users may be an unpopular move among governments around the world, whose surveillance it could make far more difficult. WhatsApp’s user base is highly international, with large populations of users in Europe and India. 

But WhatsApp founder Jan Koum has been vocal about his opposition to cooperating with government snooping. 

“I grew up in a society where everything you did was eavesdropped on, recorded, snitched on,” he told Wired UK earlier this year. “Nobody should have the right to eavesdrop, or you become a totalitarian state—the kind of state I escaped as a kid to come to this country where you have democracy and freedom of speech. Our goal is to protect it.”

27 comments:

  1. Long live LA TUTA hope he never gets captured

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Please give a few reasons for hoping La Tuta is never capture. I am very curious to know, because right now I am thinking you are a troll, CT member , criminal socioath or psychopat, or all of the above.

      Mexico-Watcher

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    2. He's hiding in the mountains with a bunch of his butt-buddies. His homes/businesses have been taken by the feds and his rutas and plazas have been taken by Los Viagras. Oh, and his lieutenant just got arrested. Homeboy been done.

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    3. Haha you're an idiot!! Tuta is coming to his end he's a worthless piece of shit!

      Delete
    4. Fuck all u haters tuta is getting his plazas back and coming back strong er then ever I just like how all u punks hate and take time reading and trying to insult me just love it ARRIBA EL PROFE CABRONES

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    5. To the one who says that TUTa is hiding in the montains, please stop believing that shit, as ig governats were not corrupt, thanks to corruption that this capos are living in big cities like el H and chapo, they are conducting business from big cities like Guadalajara, Monterrey and DF, believing that they live in the montains lis plain stupid, is like santaclauss exists jajajaja. No sean pendejos pa pensar.

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    6. Chapo is in prison but you're right, he probably spent a lot of time living in big cities. And yes, El H is probably a big city as well. That doesn't mean anything with regard to La Tuta. I promise you La Tuta has lost most of his safe houses and personal homes and is living in a rural camp in the TC mountains.

      Delete
    7. La tuta is no el chapo money is power

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    8. Lmao la tuta aint on the same level as chapo or el H. Hes a mexican hillbilly

      Delete
  2. B.s i woudnt be surprised if the u.s.a has already hacked wlthe app
    With so much money.and there own private army of hackers there will always be government snooping

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. intels only need To read what comes up on your screen because
      Phones since 1994 have been built for them.
      Deception

      Delete
  3. Jajajajaja this is old news..is the same shit with Nextel radio cellphones..is really hard to hear gossip on its signals cause they are encrypted. There is no need to even , encryption just used codes, example they even use the radio stations in mexico sending crazy has messages...I was on tijuana and I heard some pendejo, send a dedication to his friends ," Saludos a mis primos en coahulia, cuidado con los sapos, arriva la revolusion" I made the comment that's super dumb ass comments to say on live radio. and the taxi driver I was with told me, that,usually Halcones communication is clever. .. coahulia is a street near la revolusion in zona norte in tijuana, where all the hookers are at, and that sapos are usually green, that means soldier's cause of their green uniform. So my point is that mexican cartels are very Clever....by the way "freedom not free" so fuck mexican government.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. jajaja you are ignorant, this is not the same thing and only began the new apps this week after the sale. you are not understanding the new technology to the app.

      Delete
  4. La tuta is done. He will get caught very soon.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I went to the WC in brazIL and I never heard if what's app until I got there. Everyone I met from Mex or other countries had what's ap, crazys

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True man all over Mexico people use Whatsapp yet here in California hardly anyone.
      I think it has to do with Telcel not offering unlimited txts.

      Delete
    2. TRUE I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND IN TAMPS, MEXICO AND THAT IS HOW WE COMUNICATE... AND EVERYONE AROUND OUR CIRCLE OF FRIENDS HAVE THAT APP WHATTSAPP.... PHONE CONTRACTS ARE TO EXPENSIVE AND HARDLY WORK IN RURAL AREAS IN MEXICO.... NEXTEL WAS THE THING TO HAVE I COULD SPEAK FROM SAN DIEGO, CA TO MATSMOROS , MEXICO TO MC ALLEN TEXAS , TO MICHOACAN WITH NO PROBLEM AFTER SPRINT TOOK OVER MY WALKIE WAS WORTHLESS... I HAD TO FIND A DIFFERENT METHOD OF COMMUNICATION..... WHEN I LIVED IN SAN DIEGO THE FEDS AND JUST ABOUT EVERYONE HAD NEXTEL WALKIES.... NOW EVERY ONE GOT RID OF THE SERVICE THROUGH SPRINT.... USELESS.... AND NO WE USW WHATSAPP.... GETS THE JOB DONE AND NOW ADAYS EVERYONE HAS INTERNET CONECTIONS..... EVEN IN MEX.... YOU CAN SEE THE INTERNET LEECHES AROUND THE LOCAL SCHOOLS PIGGYBACKING ON THE INTERNET..... MY TWO CENTS

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    3. Lol yeah man all the contacts I have on Whatsapp are ppl who live in Mexico or other friends here in Cali who talk to ppl from Mexico.. Shit crazy.. I dont like the govt spying bs though.

      Delete
  6. What an ignorant thing to say...

    Fanboys naturally immortalize what they will never be...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Honduras beauty queen Maria Jose Alvarado found dead :-(
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30114841

    "According to a UN report, Honduras has the world's highest homicide rate, with 90.4 people murdered per 100,000 of the population."

    ReplyDelete
  8. So the moral of this story is: No matter how poor or stupid you are, if you get a good education you can become a BILLIONAIRE instead of doing all kinds of stupid illegal stuff. WOW very exciting. When there's a will there's a way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't worry about the billionaire stuff, or the illegal dangerous stuff. Find things that make you happy like hobbies, art, nature, sports. Find someone to love, help other people, get to know yourself and others, feel blessed to be alive. I think the average legal corporate billionaire is just as dirty spiritually as the average cartel boss. Just be happy with what you have, appreciate being alive. Enjoy food, exercise, sleep, sex, love, raising kids.

      Delete
    2. Just scrollin threw old articles, I'm new to BB about a month and half in...just wanted to say kudos my friend, well said.

      Delete
  9. Most billionaire geniuses do not go for a formal education, on some cases the good education is the people you hang with, or on school, just the basic knowledge, a foundation, but geniuses are not a product of schooling, more like a product of wrong and faulty wiring...
    The beauty queen got lucky, her brother in law killed her and not a gangbanger...
    Maybe the gangbangers are just scapegoating him...

    ReplyDelete
  10. You are right, streetsmarts equals fat-tonys.....School goers equals nerds with their bags for luch and a squedule ahead everyday, plain stupid.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dear mexico-wa wa waaah!
    -La puta tuta walked away from Autodefensas, no armed violence...
    --He did not put Dr Mireles in prison..
    --He did not arrest nor has any single AD captive on spurious charges...
    --he is not preaching law and order bullshit to anybody...
    --El migueladas and his H3 are getting away with murder and propaganda and the cooperation of el castillo de cagada right under your nose...

    ReplyDelete
  12. You definitely need to see this article about WhatsApp message spying.

    ReplyDelete

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