21 years have passed since the National Civil Police (PNC) identified the first cases of extortion; At that time, without “any degree of danger.” Nowadays, the accusations reach millionaire figures, although the mediation of the authorities can avoid payment in eight out of 10 cases.
The last week, the police declared a frontal fight against extortionist groups, taking advantage of the advantage of having concrete information about operations. Everything indicates that from prisons coordinate extortion.
Police confirm that in prisons there are “extortion tables”, from which the capture of victims is planned, the lists of telephone numbers are assigned to harass and the payments are received and concentrated. This business meant in the last 45 days Q1.7 million in payments.
Official data indicate that between January 1 and February 17 of this year, three thousand 845 cases of extortion have been denounced, of which it was possible to avoid payment in three thousand 443, which represents 89.54% of the reports. The total amount that extortionists demanded that their victims was Q35.54 million.
However, the police argue that currently, and thanks to the complaints and mediation of security experts, 81% of extortion is not paid.
It has also been determined that 19% of the extortion paid are gang demands; The rest is of the so -called imitators, who are passed through gang members.
Extortion tables
The “extortion tables”, according to the PNC, are developed when a leader of extortionists meet, which can be a sector chief that has several phones in its possession and that is cited daily with inmates “experts in threats and extortion speech” Admit the authorities.
The leader assumes the role of coordinator and delivery to each of these inmates a telephone with balance and internet, accompanied by a list of numbers of the potential victims, to dedicate the following hours to call them and demand money, under threats.
If the coercion of the inmate has an effect, the next step is to provide a bank account number, of a collaborators database; that is, they do not have a single account; On the contrary, several payments can be made to different accounts.
To ensure the payment, the extortionist can coordinate the visit of a “collector”, who is outside the prison. In this way you can exert more pressure on the victim until it is frightened in case you oppose payment.
Thus they choose their victims
Extortionists seek “allies”, who many times also coercion to collaborate. These may own neighborhood stores. They are told that when someone gets to buy a cell phone balance recharge, write down the number in a notebook and detail other characteristics of the person, such as clothing or who arrives.
This “collaborator” is forced to send the victim’s telephone number to the extortionist so that he can include it in the list of victims and call him to demand money, this time with the argument that he knows his movements and his family, based on the details that have provided them.
According to the PNC, criminals use “collaborators” who enter homes to leave propane, purified water or extract garbage. These must take photographs from the interior of the property or repair the characteristics of family members and their assets.
According to police investigators, investigations to detect these structures are complex because, in general, the collector does not know the extortionist, because “among them the collectors are exchanged.”
It started 22 years ago
Since 2003, according to the PNC, the first cases of extortion were documented, which were considered “isolated and without a degree of danger.”
In 2007, according to the authorities, the first systematic extortion or “income” were reported by gangs to merchants and carriers. Payments, as now, were demanded every week, fortnight or month.
Nine years later, in 2012, a second group of extortionists was detected: imitators.
This new group was not gang members or had a direct relationship with them; However, the extortionist identified himself as a gang member to instill fear.
The beginning of the imitators, according to the police, has been tracked to the leader of the Black August, Rigoberto Antonio Morales Barrientos, aka rigorrico, who, together with two Nicaraguans, induced other inmates to call his victims, for which he They were identified as Mexican hitmen or gang members, to demand payments through bank deposits.
The rigorrico structure also recruited prostitutes, who charged a commission in exchange for withdrawing the money from the bank accounts in which the victims deposited the money, a method that later extended throughout the country.
In 2009, as a reaction to extortion, the National Division against Criminal Development of Gang (Diponda) was created, to whose work the Prosecutor’s Office against the crime of extortion was added. They currently have 80% coverage in the country.
From these instances, in addition to investigating the criminal structures, explains the PNC, the victims are also advised and thus have prevented them from paying, in eight out of 10 cases.
“The expansion of Diponda and the Prosecutor’s Office against the crime of extortion has generated greater citizen confidence because it is also facilitated to take denunciation to the victims, with data in reserve, to prevent the complaint from being presented before third parties, and data from the data of the data of the Compressor, ”explained the director of the PNC, David Custodio Bico.
Police also states that in 81% of the complaints filed, the victim does not pay, since investigators determine that it is not a risk extortion and that they commit it imitators. In these cases, in general, it is only one or two people who act, without the support of more complicit.
As for extortion to businessmen and carriers, the PNC explained that research and advice is different, since they should be given the respective monitoring, to determine the degree of danger and which criminal group is responsible for the demand, since these these Economic sectors are persecuted by gangs, by the handling of cash.