An international group of online hackers is warning a Mexican drug cartel to release one of its members, kidnapped from a street protest, or it will publish the identities and addresses of the syndicate's associates, from corrupt police to taxi drivers, as well as reveal the syndicates' businesses.

The vow is a bizarre cyber twist to Mexico's ongoing drug war, as a group that has no guns is squaring off against the Zetas, a cartel blamed for thousands of deaths as well as introducing beheadings and other frightening brutality.

"You made a huge mistake by taking one of us. Release him," says a masked man in a video posted online on behalf of the group, Anonymous.

"We cannot defend ourselves with a weapon … but we can do this with their cars, homes, bars, brothels and everything else in their possession," says the man, who is wearing a suit and tie.

"It won't be difficult; we all know who they are and where they are located," says the man, who underlines the group's international ties by speaking Spanish with the accent of a Spaniard while using Mexican slang.

He also implies that the group will expose mainstream journalists who are somehow in cahoots with the Zetas by writing negative articles about the military, the country's biggest fist in the drug war.

"We demand his release," says the Anonymous spokesman, who is wearing a mask like the one worn by the shadowy revolutionary character in the movie V for Vendetta, which came out in 2006. "If anything happens to him, you sons of (expletive) will always remember this upcoming November 5."

The person reportedly kidnapped is not named, and the video does not share information about the kidnapping other than that it occurred in the Mexican state of Veracruz during a street protest.

Anonymous draws its roots from an online forum dedicated to bringing sensitive government documents and other material to light.

If Anonymous can make good on its threats to publish names, it will "most certainly" lead to more deaths and could leave bloggers and others open to reprisal attacks by the cartel, contends Stratfor, an Austin-based global intelligence company.

"In this viral world on the Internet, it shows how much damage could be done with just one statement on the Web," said Fred Burton of Stratfor, which published a report Friday that probes the implications of the cartel drawing the activists' ire.

Mike Vigil, the retired head of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the Zetas must take Anonymous seriously.

"It is a gutsy move," Vigil said. "By publishing the names, they identify them to rivals, and trust me, they will go after them."

Somewhere, someone is frantically coding a new video game...

Anonymous threatens, then cancels, attack on drug ring
When an Anonymous follower was allegedly kidnapped by the Zeta drug gang in Mexico, supporters said they would retaliate by naming criminal collaborators -- but then backed off

By Robert Lemos | InfoWorldFollow @infoworld
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When the Anonymous movement has a bad day, supporters get arrested. When the Zeta drug cartel has a bad day, nearly three dozen of its members are killed and dumped on a Mexican highway.

Now the two worlds have collided: One arm of Anonymous has called out the Zeta gang for allegedly kidnapping a supporter. In a message posted earlier in October on the Anonymous Mexico blog, hackers that align themselves with the Anonymous philosophy promised to publicize the identities of Zeta collaborators, unless an unnamed supporter was freed.

"You have made a great mistake by taking one of us -- free him," the group said in a video posted online featuring a person in a black suit, red tie, and trademark Guy Fawkes mask popularized by the movie "V is for Vendetta." The only information released about the allegedly kidnapped Anonymous supporter refers to him being part of Operation Paperstorm, a grassroots effort to distribute pro-Anonymous propaganda.

The group that posted the video claimed it could identify journalists, police officers, and taxi drivers who collaborate with the Zeta crime syndicate. The gang, which operates in the eastern state of Veracruz in Mexico, has found itself embattled in a war over territory in the state's capital, also named Veracruz. In September, 35 bodies of alleged Zeta members were dumped out of two pickup trucks and onto a highway in Veracruz, purportedly by members of a rival gang.

The group posted the video on Oct. 6. On Saturday, the website of former Tabasco attorney general Gustavo Rosario Torres was defaced, accusing him of being a Zeta collaborator. The accusations are not new, however: In 2008, anti-crime activists came forward with a taped conversation allegedly between Torres and a deputy talking about a $200,000 cocaine deal. It's unclear whether Anonymous has any new evidence against Torres.

The threats gained attention after global intelligence firm Stratfor penned an analysis of the incident late last week. If supporters of the Anonymous movement accuse people of collaborating with the Zeta gang, it could put those named at risk, even if the accusations are false, Stratfor warned. In addition, any threats carried out by some of Anonymous supporters, who likely believe they are immune because they live in other countries beyond the reach of Zeta, could endanger supporters within the country, going beyond mere arrests, the analysis concludes.

"Any Anonymous activists inside Mexico who are targeting or perceived as targeting the Mexican cartels will be just as vulnerable as online journalists and bloggers as the cartels seek to make them examples of what happens when someone exposes or publicizes damaging information about cartel activity," Stratfor writes.

Zeta has not shied away from targeting its online critics. In September the crime group hung two people from an overpass with a nearby sign warning bloggers and "online snitches" to beware, according to Wired. Later the same month, the decapitated body of another social-media reporter was found with a similar warning.

Worried about the impact on both misidentified people and Anonymous followers, other supporters of the Anonymous movement worked to dismantle the operation over the weekend. In effect, the group canceled the attack, according to online news site Milenio.

But the fractious Anonymous movement is not of a single mind. A member known as Sabu has claimed the operation, codenamed OpCartel, will continue.

"OpCartel is very much alive and like I said to others in private our war is on corruption on both sides of the spectrum. Vamos a GUERRA!" claimed the person going by the Twitter handle anonymouSabu.

Peter Molyneux is already doing it im sure.

Well, based on Mookhow's link, it looks like a lot of grand promises were made, excitement was built, and then at the last minute all of the interesting stuff got pulled and we're left with nothing.

So yeah, Molyneux really is the perfect person to develop a game based on this.