Feared cartels in Mexico have expanded beyond drugs to stay powerful and relevant, but the threat of violence in communities throughout the country remains the same.
In Michoacán, a state in western Mexico, the local press calls the internet towers dotted around various municipalities “narco antennas.” This is because a local cartel plants them randomly around the area, often using stolen equipment to do so. Then, they charge residents between 400 and 500 pesos (US$23–29) a month for their use.
“Pay up or else” is their effective sales pitch. People were “forced to contract internet services at excessive costs, under the argument that they would be deprived of their lives if they did not do so,” prosecutors said. Though no deaths related to the scam have been reported, it was a lucrative business for the unnamed cartel, believed to be Los Viagras, earning them about US$150,000 a month.
On December 29, the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Michoacán stated that three search warrants were used to arrest one male along with three antennas, internet repeater equipment, routers, and computers. The equipment was labeled “Telmex,” which meant it belonged to the major telecommunications company owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.
Authorities have long known that Mexican cartels have used radio and internet towers to communicate amongst themselves and evade authorities. However, the use of such towers to extort money from residents is part of a new trend to expand their base of operations well beyond drugs. “They are also becoming de facto monopolists of certain services and other legal markets,” Falko Ernst, an analyst for Mexico at Crisis Group, recently told the Associated Press. He adds that as they have gained firm control in a larger portion of the country, they have formed “fiefdoms.”
Expansion beyond the drug business
One area of expansion involves avocados. Since 80 percent of the country’s avocados are grown in the Michoacán state, more than anywhere in the world, the cartels that control the region realized that this could be a steady source of income for them.
“For a long time, organized crime groups in this war with each other have been diversifying their criminal portfolio,” David Saucedo, a Mexico-based security analyst told USA Today. “They are engaged in kidnapping and extortion, and they quickly identified some very lucrative activities, such as controlling and collecting extortion feed from avocado producers.”
Today, it’s become almost accepted practice for growers and packing companies to pay 1,000 Mexican pesos (US$58.49) to either the Los Viagras cartel or the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the two groups that control the state, for the right to safely produce and distribute avocados – or “green gold” as they are known locally.
Another recent scam involved timeshare fraud which targeted elderly Americans. In November, US authorities at the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), identified the Jalisco drug cartel as the fraudsters who used call centers to promote fake offers of timeshares to Americans. Some went so far as to pose as US Department Treasury officials or OFAC employees.
At least 600 Americans were scammed out of US$40 million. OFAC ultimately announced sanctions against three Mexican citizens and 13 companies linked to the Jalisco cartel in Puerto Vallarta, who were known to murder call center employees who quit.
While drug battles are still the focus in southern Mexico, last September Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador mentioned that the cartels cut off power and stopped government workers from fixing power lines in Chiapas, near the Guatemala border.
Battling cartels did this to control drug routes from Central America, as well as smuggle immigrants who were heading to the US border. It was also believed that the cartels were bribing residents to act as civilian supports, known in Mexico as “social bases.”
They’re also using innovative ways to kill as well. Last Thursday, state prosecutors in the southern state of Guerrero said that a cartel attacked 30 people there via drone, killing five.
Mexico is home to an estimated 200 cartels and criminal organizations.
