Imagine driving across the border and getting nailed for a crime you did not commit.

Last week, Martínez, a Juárez resident and a teacher at La Fe Preparatory School in El Paso, was an inmate in Cereso prison. Martínez was trying to convince the Mexican justice system that she was being held for a crime she didn’t commit.

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Martínez’s case was also aided by her well-documented trajectory as a hard-working teacher, neighbor testimonies declaring strange men had broken into her vehicle and strong evidence that the drugs did not belong to her.

Yet the turning point came last week when an affidavit submitted to a federal court by the FBI described the arrest of a man accused of participating in a cross-border drug-smuggling ring.

The document described how the men targeted students and professionals who crossed regularly to El Paso using the dedicated commuter lane and then used the vehicle identification numbers on their cars to make copies of the vehicles’ keys.

via Miss Ana’s release: El Paso teacher thankful for freedom.  Yeah, living on the border is just peachy king Janet.

More high-tech tools for drug cartels.  They’re now using social networking to chronicle their crimes and spread fear.  There’s also concern they’re using some sites to track victims.

There’s the drug war on the streets and then there’s the war online.  YouTube videos, social networking sites, there’s even  a blog, Del Narco, which offers an anonymous, self-described uncensored view of drug cartel activities.

“That is the Twitter generation,” said Tony Payan, of the University of Texas-El Paso.  ” Those people are quick. They know how to use these media, these new media and they know how to send these message. They know how to become viral practically in their messages.”

Cartel messages rally supporters, threaten rivals, or try to intimidate authorities.  But there’s also concern cartels are secretly using social networking sites to target kidnapping victims in Mexico.

Whether mining personal data secretly or sending a message to millions, social media is one more weapon in the hands of cartel criminals.

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