Drug cartel hacked FBI official’s phone to track and kill informants, report says

Bloomberg's Best Photos 2014: Drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is escorted to a helicopter by Mexican security forces at Mexico's International Airport in Mexico city, Mexico, on Feb. 22, 2014. Photographer: Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg via Getty Images Credit: Getty Images

The Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico hacked the phone of an FBI official investigating kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán as part of a surveillance campaign “to intimidate and/or kill potential sources or cooperating witnesses,” according to a recently published report by the Justice Department.

The report, which cited an “individual connected to the cartel,” said a hacker hired by its top brass “offered a menu of services related to exploiting mobile phones and other electronic devices.” The hired hacker observed “'people of interest' for the cartel, including the FBI Assistant Legal Attache, and then was able to use the [attache's] mobile phone number to obtain ...