Drug lord 'El Chapo' threatens to destroy ISIS in e-mail
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the Sinaloa cartel boss and world's most wanted drug lord, has threatened ISIS with retaliation if it continues to destroy his drug shipments to the Middle East that go through the terror group's "caliphate."
And he's not mincing words.
"I pity the next son of a ***** who tries to interfere with the business of the Sinaloa cartel. I will have their hearts and tongues torn from them," El Chapo reportedly wrote ISIS in an e-mail leaked to a Mexican blogger with ties to the cartel.
The encrypted e-mail, which hasn't been verified, was sent directly to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to cartelblog.com.
El Chapo has been in hiding since escaping Mexican jail earlier this year. It's believed he sent the message via his son, who helps run the Sinaloa cartel.
The Middle East, with its excessive oil wealth, is a hot market for cocaine, ecstasy and other party drugs. Several cartels are trying to establish footing there, including the feared Sinaloa cartel, the largest and most powerful in the Western Hemisphere.
But the fundamentalist Islamic ideology of ISIS is very much against drugs.
And the group has been destroying all shipments found passing through the territory it controls in Iraq and Syria.
That's apparently led to bad blood between the two violent groups.
"You (ISIS) are not soldiers. You are nothing but lowly pus----," reads the e-mail leaked to cartelblog.com. "Your god cannot save you from the true terror that my men will levy at you if you continue to impact my operation ... My men will destroy you."
It's not likely an empty threat.
While not labelled a terror organization, the Sinaloa cartel engages in similar horrific killings and torture.
Kidnappings, beheadings and mass murders are among the Mexican gang's calling cards.
In 2010, the cartel recorded the beheading of 36-year-old Hugo Hernandez, whose face was then peeled off and stitched onto a soccer ball as a warning to rivals.
Hernandez' torso was found in one container; his skull, arms and legs were found in another.
The Sinaloa cartel is just the latest criminal enterprise to threaten ISIS. The Mafia, as well as street gangs the Bloods and Crips, have sworn to take down the terror group. Hells Angels members have reportedly joined forces with Kurdish fighters battling ISIS fanatics.
