PGR used social networks to identify suspects in Ayotzinapa case

To identify and locate the alleged perpetrators of the forced disappearance of 43 teachers in training of Ayotzinapa, Mexico's Attorney General's Office (PGR) obtained information from social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, MetroFlog , WhatsApp and MySpace, among others.

According to information contained in the public version of the preliminary investigation of the case, Facebook photos were used to identify Felipe Rodríguez Salgado, accused of running the operation that led to the alleged death of the students. “El Cepillo”, as Rodríguez is better know, is key to sustaining the "historical truth" presented by former prosecutor Jesús Murillo Karam.

In November last year the PGR asked the Coordination to Prevent Electronic Crimes of Mexico's Federal Police to hack four Facebook profiles, among them the one of Rodríguez Salgado.

The Facebook profile of “El Cepillo” is currently unavailable, but some of his last posts, published before September 26, 2014, can be read in the file of the investigation. "I am like I want, because I am unique in this life and I will never change”; "Loyalty is rewarded and betrayal is paid with life"; "Some go, some die, but I remain the same, to the million" (sic); "My friend, they think they are crazy, but they do not know that we are madmen".

Other Facebook profiles hacked by authorities were those of Patricio Reyes Landa (El Pato), Jonathan Osorio Cortés (El Jona); Agustín García Reyes (El Cheje); Darío Morales Sánchez (El Comisario); Benito Martínez Vázquez; Salvador Reza Jacobo and María de los Ángeles Pineda Villa, wife of Iguala's former mayor José Luis Abarca.

When Pineda's profile was checked, she had this message on her cover photo: "Do not worry about what they say about you, remember that the tree with more fruits is the one that gets more stones thrown at."