DEA agents threatened with beheading

A spray-painted sign threatening death for U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents was found Friday next to a school in a northern Mexico state capital, officials said according to multiple press reports.

Addressed with profanity to "Gringos (D.E.A.)," the unsigned graffiti warned: "We know where you are and we know who you are and where you go. We are going to chop off your (expletive) heads."

Anonymous messages conveying threats and other warnings are common in areas hit hard by Mexico's drug war, but it is rarer for them to threaten U.S. law enforcement. Authorities do not know who left the message, which was removed.

The DEA referred questions to the U.S. State Department. Officials there did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The message was left in the Chihuahua state capital, also called Chihuahua, which is about 220 miles (360 kilometers) from the U.S. border.

In February, suspected Zeta cartel members killed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata and wounded colleague Victor Avila on a highway in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi.

Also on Friday, five copies of a message addressed to Chihuahua Gov. Cesar Duarte were found painted on blankets known as "mantas" in Ciudad Juarez, a city across the border from El Paso, Texas. Those messages, apparently posted by rivals of the Sinaloa drug cartel, accused officials of protecting the Sinaloa organisation.

It was not clear if the messages in Chihuahua and Ciudad Juarez were related.

"This sort of message will not stop us from continuing the fight to bring peace back to this state," Chihuahua Interior Secretary Graciela Ortiz said.

The threatening message against Duarte comes amid threats to the governor of Nuevo Leon, another northern state bordering Texas. Two of Gov. Rodrigo Medina's bodyguards were mutilated, killed and dismembered in June.

This story was first reported by www.mercurynews.com and picked up by the Associated Press with further publication on www.CBS.com and others.

Nearly 40,000 people have been murdered on or near the U.S border with Mexico far surpassing the 1,000 killed in Libya prior to NATO engagement (bombing, funding, and agents on the ground) which the United Nations called a humanitarian cause.  Now, President Barack (Insane) Obama is spending $10 million per day in Libya dropping bombs while declaring that his administration is not required to follow American law because the military action in Libya has not risen to the level of "full-blown hostilities."  Thus begs the question of how hostile the Mexican Border War must become before President Obama considers it hostile?  Maybe President Obama's next pampered vacation with the family could be on the American land now controlled by Mexican Drug Lords?