I do see your points and appreciate the reasoning.

I definitely will not move forward with anything before getting good legal advice from an actual lawyer.

One of my main reasons for wanting to meet with the cartels is just to make my intentions clear, trying to proactively avoid any misunderstandings. I've generally found that powerful people / organizations respond better when you check in with them first before getting involved with any of their stuff.

Perhaps it would be sufficient to just be very open about my plans and hope they happen to read my blog. One-way communication is better than no communication.