Mexico’s authorities mentioned Wednesday it had dismantled a prison group behind a large extortion scheme within the greatest such operation thus far.
The gang, with ties to a significant drug cartel, had operated out of the central State of Mexico, extorting firms and people in 14 municipalities and controlling labor unions within the development, mining, agriculture and parcel supply industries.
“Combating this prison group was an pressing want to guard the native financial system and the peace of hundreds of households,” mentioned Mexico’s Safety Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch.
The crackdown — dubbed Operation “Liberacion” — noticed almost 3,000 safety personnel perform 52 raids, leading to eight arrests of individuals believed to be the gang’s leaders, Garcia Harfuch mentioned on social media.
Police additionally seized stolen farm and unique animals, meat, tons of development supplies, and automobiles.
Garcia Harfuch mentioned it was “the biggest” operation ever carried out in opposition to extortion gangs, that are infamous and widespread in Mexico.
“This case is a transparent instance of what we will obtain when there’s willingness, collaboration and a shared dedication to justice,” Garcia Harfach mentioned in a assertion.
A video launched by authorities confirmed officers finishing up a number of raids throughout Mexico on July 21.
Mexico Safety Secretary
Cartels in lots of components of Mexico have expanded into kidnapping and extortion to extend their earnings, demanding cash from residents and enterprise homeowners and threatening to kidnap or kill them in the event that they refuse.
Final July, a Mexican fisheries trade chief who complained of drug cartel extortion and unlawful fishing was shot to demise within the northern border state of Baja California. The killing within the port metropolis of Ensenada got here simply hours after Pérez complained of widespread competitors from unlawful fishing.
Abnormal residents are additionally focused with extortion. Final January, a cartel within the embattled central Mexico state of Michoacan arrange its personal makeshift web antennas and informed locals they needed to pay to make use of its Wi-Fi service or they might be killed, prosecutors mentioned. Dubbed “narco-antennas” by native media, the cartel’s system concerned web antennas arrange in numerous cities constructed with stolen tools.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
