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A young computer student has become the voice of one of the most violent drug wars in the world.
The anonymous twenty-something blogger is risking his own life every day as he defies a culture of fear to post chilling pictures and videos of the ongoing battle between Mexico's drug cartels and law enforcement.
Blog del Narco has become an internet sensation - and some of the horror it displays makes the 2002 film City of God, charting the drug war on the streets of Brazil's Rio de Janeiro, look like a Disney film.
Brutal: A badly damaged bus lies at the side of the road after an ambush between Mexican drug cartels
Many of the postings, including videos of shootings and a beheading, appear to come directly from drug traffickers.
Others depict crime scenes only accessible to the military or police.
The gruesome uncensored content is sickening and extremely graphic.
It appears to be provided by all sides - drug gangs to display their power, law enforcement to show resolve and the public so people in Mexico can learn about incidents the mainstream media is forced to ignore or play down.
In at least one case Blog del Narco may have led to a major arrest - after a prison warden was seen on video detailing her alleged system of setting inmates free at night to carry out killings for a drug cartel.
Many of the videos are sent to him by readers, who know he will get them a much wider airing in Mexico, or are taken from YouTube.
Violent: This SUV is riddled with bullet holes after the execution of cartel members by a rival gang
Brave: The student is publishing uncensored images, videos and information on the brutal drug war which has so far killed 28,000 people in Mexico
Arsenal: The site has graphic images and videos of decapitations and shootings
Among his postings include:
- A video of a man being decapitated. Media only reported police finding a beheaded body, but the video shows the man confessing to working for drug lord Edgar 'La Barbie' Valdez Villareal, who is involved in a war with rival cartels Beltran Leyva and Sinaloa.
-The prison warden case, which was revealed in a video of masked members of the Zetas drug gang interrogating a police officer, who reveals that inmates allied with the Sinaloa cartel are given guns and cars and sent off to commit murders. At the end of the video the officer is shot dead.
-Links to Facebook pages of alleged traffickers and their children, weapons, cars and lavish parties.
-Photos of Mexican pop stars at a birthday party for an alleged drug dealer's teenage daughter.
While there are numerous blogs on Mexico's drug war, Blog del Narco appears to be the first used by traffickers themselves.
The blogger, a student in northern Mexico studying computer security, launched it in March as a 'hobby' but it now receives three million hits a week and hundreds of postings a day.
He said: 'People now demand information and if you don't publish it, they complain.'
Shoot out: Empty shells are strewn across the floor after another fatal gun battle between the cartels
Threats: One of the gangs sends a message to rivals on a burnt out truck. The Mexican government has been criticised for withholding information on the drug war
Mexico President Felipe Calderon has faced criticism that his government is not putting out enough information to the public.
The violent drug war has killed more than 28,000 people and made the country one of the world's most dangerous for journalists.
The blogger added: 'For the scanty details that they (mass media) put on television, they get grenades thrown at them and their reporters kidnapped.
'We publish everything. Imagine what they could do to us.'
He said the the blog provides an uncensored platform, posting items regardless of content or cartel affiliation.
He added: 'We don't insult them, we don't say one specific group is the bad one. We don't want problems with them.'
But critics said it is free PR for the cartels.
Carlos Lauria, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said: 'Media outlets have social responsibilities and have to serve the public.
'This is being produced by someone who is not doing it from a journalistic perspective. He is doing it without ethical considerations.'
The sites first posting concerned a small-town shootout in the border state of Tamaulipas which police did not even confirm had happened. It featured YouTube video of crashed cars and corpses along a road.
CNN, Mexican media, the FBI and Mexican Defense Department are among the blog's 7,300 followers on Facebook and Twitter.
The anonymous blogger said he spends around four hours a day working on it and has recruited a friend to help after becoming overwhelmed with submissions.
by:MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE
