This e-mail just came in and I’m still checking with sources at DEA and FBI to confirm this:

This is to warn any of you who may have to travel to the Nuevo Laredo area on news assignments to be extremely careful and security conscious, especially if you are working on stories related to drug trafficking anywhere along the U.S. border or in the Mexican Interior.

We have information from reliable sources that any U.S. or other foreign journalist in the area could become a target for assassination by killers hired by the local drug cartel.

The information already caused one large Texas newspaper to pull its correspondent out of Laredo.

Many of you have done stories on the drug situation along the border and are very familiar with the risks involved.

As you know we have a very confused and volatile situation in Mexico at the moment with the government fighting the drug cartels on one side and suspected guerrilla groups on the other.

It is the kind of situation where an incident involving a U.S. or other foreign journalist could be used by all groups to create more confusion.

As you all are aware, a number of our Mexican colleagues have been killed or gone missing in recent years. We are not immune.

So be very, very careful out there. Assume nothing and be careful about whom you trust. Always inform those you trust of your whereabouts when on assignments in dangerous territory.Â

Bad news if true; the stakes are climbing.

I still harbor some doubt that the Gulf Cartel or the Sinaloans will target an American journalist; beyond the border reporters and Mexico-based reporters, there’s not that many Americans that merit a death threat.

And it would be extremely bad form to whack an American. That kind of attention brings a lot of heat to the plazas.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Mexican government itself didn’t orchestrate the threat. It’s received a lot of heat after pseudoephredrine king,  Zhenli Ye Gon, turned the tables on the Feds. Last week, his lawyers said much of the $205 million found stashed in his home actually belonged to the Political Action Party.

The case is deteriorating into what the press calls “chino-gate.”

I hope this threat doesn’t quell the strong coverage the Texas papers have been giving the Mexican border. That’s precisely what’s happened to many of the strong Mexican newspapers who’ve lost narco-reporteros, including El Mañana in Nuevo Laredo and El Imparcial in Hermosillo.

Suerte hermanos and keep kicking ass.