That Story About El Chapo Declaring War on ISIS is a Hoax

He didn't do it

It's a great story. The only problem is it isn't true.

Here's one version from Fox News Latino. And here's another from Toronto Sun. There are many others.

The Daily Mail traces the story to Cartel Blog, which apparently picked it up (without linking or acknowledging the source) from Thug Life. Thug Life, which often posts satire, made the story up out of whole cloth to promote a comedy video. It was listed as a "TLV exclusive" whose source was "a Mexican blogger who has close ties with Sinaloa cartel members." There was no link.

This funny scoop is another reason to read the Daily Mail.

From Wills Robinson a few hours ago:

EXCLUSIVE: Blogger hoodwinks millions with hoax story about El Chapo declaring war on ISIS for destroying shipments of his 'Middle East-bound' cocaine 

An email supposedly written by Mexican cartel leader El Chapo, saying he would destroy ISIS, has been revealed as a hoax. 

It was reported that Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán had 'declared war' on the terrorists in an encrypted correspondence to their leader, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, in response to one of his 'shipments' of cocaine being destroyed. 

The story featured on cartelblog.com - a website dedicated to reporting the war on drugs - before being picked up a number of mainstream international news outlets and quickly going viral. 

But a writer and satirist told Daily Mail Online that he was the source of the story and that it was a work of pure fiction.

Steve Charnock 

Steve Charnock, who works for Thug Life Videos, says he published the fictional story on November 30. 

The website - and a number of others Charnock works for - upload real news stories, funny videos and some satirical pieces. 

Their aim is for these comedy pieces to go viral, but they never intended it to be picked up by major news outlets. 

He told Daily Mail Online both he and his boss came up with the story. They had previously joked in reports that the Bloods and Crips had waged war against the militants, but the stories were fake. 

'It was satire, faux news,' he said. 'It got a few shares on Facebook initially, but now it is the top story on some websites.' 

Charnock added that none of the news outlets contacted him to clarify the information. 

No one, he said, questioned how the Middle East shipment was destroyed or how the son of one of the world's most notorious fugitives would have been able to encrypt an email to the leader of ISIS. 

In the original story he made up quotes from the drug dealer, who escaped from prison through a tunnel in July.

'My men will destroy you. The world is not yours to dictate. I pity the next son of a wh*** that tries to interfere with the business of the Sinaloa Cartel. 

'I will have their heart and tongue torn from them.' 

He also wrote that three cartels The Sinaloa Cartel, The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Los Zetas, were expanding into the Middle East. 

There have been recent stories about criminal factions and families responding to the threat of ISIS. 

In November Giovanni Gambino, whose father was part of New York's mafia, told Daily Mail Online he would protect the city from ISIS.