An email supposedly written by Mexican cartel leader El Chapo, saying he would destroy ISIS, has been revealed as a hoax.

It was reported that Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán had 'declared war' on the terrorists in an encrypted correspondence to their leader, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, in response to one of his 'shipments' of cocaine being destroyed.

The story featured on cartelblog.com - a website dedicated to reporting the war on drugs - before being picked up a number of mainstream international news outlets and quickly going viral.

But a writer and satirist told Daily Mail Online that he was the source of the story and that it was a work of pure fiction.

An email supposedly written by Mexican cartel leader El Chapo (pictured being captured in 2014), saying he would destroy ISIS, has been revealed as a hoax

Steve Charnock from the website ThugLife says he published the 'faux' news story more than a week ago. The website - and a number of others Charnock works for - upload real news stories, funny videos and some satirical pieces

Steve Charnock, who works for Thug Life Videos, says he published the fictional story on November 30.

The website - and a number of others Charnock works for - upload real news stories, funny videos and some satirical pieces.

Their aim is for these comedy pieces to go viral, but they never intended it to be picked up by major news outlets.

He told Daily Mail Online both he and his boss came up with the story. They had previously joked in reports that the Bloods and Crips had waged war against the militants, but the stories were fake.

'It was satire, faux news,' he said. 'It got a few shares on Facebook initially, but now it is the top story on some websites.'

Charnock added that none of the news outlets contacted him to clarify the information.

No one, he said, questioned how the Middle East shipment was destroyed or how the son of one of the world's most notorious fugitives would have been able to encrypt an email to the leader of ISIS.

In the original story he made up quotes from the drug dealer, who escaped from prison through a tunnel in July.

The original story (pictured) was the picked up by a Mexican blogger three days ago, and has since been reported by international mainstream news outlets

It was initially reported that Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán (left) had 'declared war' on the terrorists in an encrypted correspondence to their leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi (right) in response to one of their 'shipments' of cocaine being destroyed

'My men will destroy you. The world is not yours to dictate. I pity the next son of a wh*** that tries to interfere with the business of the Sinaloa Cartel.

'I will have their heart and tongue torn from them.'

He also wrote that three cartels The Sinaloa Cartel, The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Los Zetas, were expanding into the Middle East.

There have been recent stories about criminal factions and families responding to the threat of ISIS.