HomeNewsBriefPhone Extortion in Mexico Rising
BRIEF

Phone Extortion in Mexico Rising

EXTORTION / 7 DEC 2010 BY INSIGHT CRIME EN

Threatening phone calls made by supposed members of violent crime groups like the Zetas increased 210 percent from 2009, says a Mexican security agency.

According to the Citizen's Council for Public Security (CCSP), a government body that monitors crime rates, in 2010 a total of 119,007 threatening calls were reported. The actual rate of phone extortion is probably higher, considering the number of cases that go unreported. The CCSP registered an average of 9,917 threatening phone calls a month, only a slight drop from last year's average of 10,000, reports El Economista.

The government launched a campaign in 2007 to try and register the country's cell phone subscribers, as many extortion and kidnapping schemes are carried out with mobile phones. In many cases extortion schemes are run from prison, with felons calling numbers from the local phone book or from cell phone lists.

In Juarez, extortionists are being blamed for setting fire to a kindergarten on Monday. El Diario de Juarez reports that some families still took their children to class today, even though part the school burned down allegedly after school staff refused to pay their monthly "quota" to local gangs. The Attorney General's in Chihuahua maintains that the fire was unrelated to extortion payments and was caused by a short-circuited cable.

Extortionists in Juarez have also threatened other schools in the area, reports El Economista

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

MARIJUANA / 6 DEC 2022

Today, most of the marijuana consumed in the United States is produced domestically, changing the game in the international drug…

ELITES AND CRIME / 30 SEP 2021

Evidence and accusations are piling up against Mexico's former top security official Genaro García Luna, as US prosecutors proffer new…

COCAINE / 13 APR 2022

The arrest of yet another alleged Sinaloa Cartel emissary in Colombia has once again raised questions about the extent of…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…