If you were on Twitter at all Thursday, you noticed that a report that wanted Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin Guzman, also known as El Chapo, had declared war on the Islamic State. However, it’s since been reported that it was all a hoax.
CartelBlog.com, which reports on drug trafficking, posted a story that a Mexican blogger linked to Sinaloa cartel members leaked a message from El Chapo in which he declared war on ISIS and its leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
“My men will destroy you. The world is not yours to dictate,” the message read. “I pity the next son of a wh*re that tries to interfere with the business of the Sinaloa Cartel. I will have their heart and tongue torn from them.”
The story was picked up by several media outlets and went viral. However, satirist Dave Charnock of Thug Life Videos told The Daily Mail that it was all a joke and took credit for writing it. He said that his boss came up with the idea.
“It was satire, faux news,” Charnock told the Daily Mail. “It got a few shares on Facebook initially, but now it is the top story on some websites.”
Charnock also noted that there were several questionable elements of the original story that no one was wondering about. The story claimed that the email was encrypted by El Chapo’s son and sent to the leader of ISIS, but how did El Chapo’s son send that email? Why were there no other reports of ISIS destroying drug shipments from Mexico to the Middle East? All these “facts” were made up.
El Chapo has been on the run since escaping prison in July. He was reportedly injured by Mexican marines, but has still avoided capture.