As Mexico continues its battle with drug cartels, residents are taking to the internet to help authorities find the drug dealers in their neighborhoods.
Using Twitter and Google Maps, residents with knowledge of criminal activity in Reynosa, are marking and sharing with authorities and other residents where they’ve seen or know of drug related incidents occurring.
Local officials have a system for reporting illegal drug activity (Denuncia Ciudadana), and say they would rather have residents use their system than one that residents created themselves.
Earlier this year, an anonymous group began a project on Twitter called “Denuncia Publica de Puntos de Venta Droga”, which utilizes both Twitter and Google Maps to allow users to zoom in, even getting street views of areas where drugs are sold.
Whether residents use the system created by law enforcement or the one run by Twitter users, they are doing what they can to try to rid their neighborhoods of drugs and hopefully the violence that comes along with it.
