Narco-messaging billboards appear in El Paso, Texas

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Borderland Beat blog reports that police in El Paso are investigating vandalism of two billboards that left threatening messages and hanging mannequins consistent with drug gang messaging in Mexico. "One message was painted on a billboard in far East El Paso at in the 9400 block of Gateway East, off I-10 East, and read plato o plomo. In Mexico, that type of message was directed at people in power such as police or government officials. It is interpreted to mean either take the bribe being offered (plata) or take the bullet (plomo). Viewers that called into the ABC El Paso newsroom found the mannequin hanging from a noose from the billboard dressed in a suit to be more disturbing than the message."