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U.S. Tourist Phone Scams a "Major Source of Income" for Jalisco Cartel New Generation

2023-06-10T04:55:41.162Z

Highlights: The case of seven call center workers murdered in Jalisco has revealed one of the new tentacles of the mafia. shell companies issue false documents and demand taxes to pay for properties that do not exist. A cell of the criminal group based in Puerto Vallarta had specialized in a type of telephone fraud with which they steal the savings of retired Americans. The favorite victims of this scheme: "elderly U.S. citizens," as the Treasury Department report puts it. InSight Crime says this is just "the tip of the iceberg"


The recent case of the seven call center workers murdered in Jalisco has revealed one of the new tentacles of the mafia: shell companies issue false documents and demand taxes to pay for properties that do not exist


From the United States to Mexico. From the police of Zapopan, a municipality east of Guadalajara, to the Treasury Department of one of the largest economies in the world. The case of the seven young people disappeared in Jalisco has put in the spotlight an international scam that involves, at least allegedly, the Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG), the powerful criminal organization whose main activity is the shipment and sale of fentanyl and other drugs to the United States. The network of companies exposed by US authorities reveals the ability of organized crime to increase its sources of income thanks to the most diverse illegal enterprises, experts warn.

It all started on April 27, when the US Treasury Department exposed a network of companies connected to the CJNG, but engaged in a more prosaic business than drug trafficking. A cell of the criminal group based in Puerto Vallarta had specialized in a type of telephone fraud with which they steal the savings of retired Americans by making them believe they were acquiring or renting a vacation residence on the coveted beaches of Mexico. The authorities have not ensured that the missing youths were participants in this activity, but they have been leaving small clues along the way. The relatives of the victims have denounced the "criminalization" of their disappeared.

In a statement, U.S. authorities announced sanctions against seven individuals and 19 companies connected to the Mexican cartel. Brian Nelson, the Under Secretary for Financial Intelligence at the Treasury Department, has highlighted the importance of this activity for the financing of the cartel in Puerto Vallarta: "The timeshare fraud of tourist goods in the Puerto Vallarta area and elsewhere is an important source of income that sustains the group's overall criminal activity."

Eduardo Pardo Espino, a 45-year-old Mexican, is identified as the head of this plot, and has been sanctioned along with the other six individuals who were allegedly under his command. The purpose of these sanctions is to block the assets and interests held by designated persons in the United States. The companies whose activities have connections or have made payments to members of the CJNG are based in Cancun, Guadalajara, Nayarit and Puerto Vallarta, and were in the name of the different involved. They had names such as Besthings, DantWoo Administrative Services, or Promotora Vallarta One, and served as a cover and connection with other leaders of the criminal group.

The favorite victims of this scheme: "elderly U.S. citizens," as the Treasury Department report puts it. "Before initiating a real estate purchase or making a timeshare investment [when you buy a property to which you only have access a certain part of the year] U.S. citizens should exercise caution," warns a notice from the U.S. embassy in early May. The procedure is always similar: first intermediaries claim to have ready buyers. The scammers then ask to advance some money that is needed to pay supposed fees or taxes. When they have the money in their accounts, the scammers disappear.

The methods and techniques they use to bring their speech to life go a long way. Some, the embassy notice says, design pristine websites that mimic real American companies, but are filled with false information, such as the location of the company or the name of the owners. In other cases, fraudsters present false documents to the authorities and even register with the Office of Good Business Practices, with false names as well. And the story doesn't end when they are discovered. The authorities have come to detect that, when the scammer stops trusting the scammer, he pretends to be a representative of the Mexican government or a financial institution. They then ask for a fee to help the victim recover the lost money, and disappear when it is given to them.

Carlos Antonio Flores, a researcher at the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (Ciesas) and a specialist in organized crime, took the news and the US Treasury report with a good dose of surprise. "I had not identified that the cartel was engaged in this type of business, because the benefits that can be obtained are not comparable with others such as drug trafficking or huachicoleo," says Flores. Drug trafficking and fuel theft, businesses more typical of a criminal organization the size of the CJNG, revert far more profits than telephone scams. "If the information is true, it would mean that the cartel is diversifying its activities."

The center of this operation is in Puerto Vallarta, the most important tourist enclave of the Jalisco coast. InSight Crime says this is just "the tip of the iceberg" of CJNG's involvement in the city's tourism sector, "which has been a gold mine for the group for years." The criminal group takes advantage of real estate development and consumption generated by tourism to launder money, creating a network of construction companies and restaurants through which they channel the money obtained illegally. They also complain that "the effectiveness of international sanctions, such as the seizure of property by local authorities, is questionable." "U.S. sanctions will have little impact on the criminal operation, but will greatly hinder companies' access to the U.S. banking system."

Ryan Donner, a real estate agent and lawyer from Puerto Vallarta, told a television station in the United States that they had had two cases of this type in recent times. "It's not very frequent, but they have reached us," he said. In their case, they managed to stop the scam before the person had transferred money to the cartel, but this is not always the case. Donner said the scammers sent fake contracts and official-looking documents from the Mexican administration demanding taxes. "They have documents that appear to be official documents, it would be very easy to fall into the trap of paying them."

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Source: elparis

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