By
Ricardo Swire
Communication technological advances not only revolutionized the commerce industry but equally transformed the drug trade. Trends show that among ultra-modern traffickers WhatsApp is the most popular method of conducting drug deals. Micro-traffickers also gravitate to Discord, Facebook, Kik, Signal and Wickr that offers end-to-end encryption.
As a national security counteroffensive American courts mandated WhatsApp to install special technology called an “intercept” to monitor calls and messages related to terrorists and drug investigations. Analysis revealed such intercepts do not provide message content. The technology only captures unencrypted metadata such as date, time and duration.
In 2018 Australia passed legislation ordering tech companies to decode potential terrorists or organized crime related messages. Such a national security measure was futuristic and reflected cognizance of Mexican narco-traffickers’ social media platform usage in the transnational drug trade. 2017 internal security records quantified twenty thousand “narcotienditas” or drug trafficking areas across Mexico City, compared to thirteen thousand sale points in 2015.
Federal Police reports identified one Mexico City syndicate that provides “menus” of products via WhatsApp. Mexico’s Criminal Investigations Agency (ICA) and Naval data noted the “Union de Tepito” drug gang and its boss “El Pistache,” supplied drugs ordered from a special WhatsApp menu. On Tuesday April 2, 2019 law enforcers intercepted the successor of “El Hugo m Vargas” at an apartment in High Park, San Fe, Mexico City.
The WhatsApp advertising message’s legend “door-to-door service, twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days of the year” appears at the end alongside an Emoji with a cart. Prices and Emojis that represent different qualities of cocaine, crack, ecstasy by pill or weight and methamphetamine are listed. One Mexico City drug corridor extends to Venustiano, Carranza, Miguel Hidalgo Alvaro Cloregon, Azcapotzalco and Coyoacan.
Ricardo Swire
Ricardo Swire is the Principal Consultant at R-L-H Security Consultants & Business Support Services and writes on a number of important issues.
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