Police intent on extortion and kidnapping

Translated for Borderland Beat from a Zetatijuana Special Report by Otis B Fly-Wheel

In a confusing incident , a group of residents of the Valle de Mexicali , affirmed that they had been kidnapped by Municipal Police , and that they escaped and evaded paying the 30 thousand dollar ransom demand. Meanwhile the authorities are investigating a dozen Municipal Police men assigned to this zone.

Between the common land of Durango and El Carranza ,on a road with winding curves , there is a small drain heading to the south , here there is a fork and you take the dirt road for about 3 miles. This then forks and continues eastward until you reach a settlement known as " Rancho El Caiman " , in the middle of the valley of Mexicali.

After the fence painted blue green , a screen door on the porch of a house , in the background are corrales from which emanates the sound of roosters , chickens, goats , pigs and sheep

Until on the morning of Sunday 4th of January, five Municipal Police patrol cars pulled up , there on the porch of the house were three men , who had joined two others , Jorge Luis Sanchez Perez , 19 years old tells what happened next.

" Here was George Sanchez , my grandmother , Amelia Rivera , later on some other youths arrived. Duardo and Raul . Then five patrol cars of Municipal Police turned up , they had no arrest warrant or anything." There were like ten or twelve agents here, all wearing blue uniforms with balaclavas to conceal their identity".

Other testimony refers to two of the uniformed men not having balaclavas , "we will recognize them if we see them". One was black and the other was a dark skinned woman, round face, of short stature with black hair. They told us they were coming , there was something here , here stinks they told us recounts Jorge Sanchez , the father of the young man.

They were here for about an hour , they found nothing but anyway we were handcuffed and put in the patrol cars. Myself , Raul and Jorge , also Eduardo but they kept him apart from us.

They said they wanted money.

" and money for what "was the question, to which the youth Sanchez responded

" well I don't know" , the simpletons wanted to kidnap us.

According to the father of the youth , they asked for thirty five thousand dollars , but then dropped the figure to thirty thousand dollars , they gave us a rebate joked Sanchez Snr.

They brought us walking to the Ejido coast of Sonora , there we were forced into some drains. They were talking to my brother to arrange the ransom , first one hour passed , then two , then the whole day went by.

According to other family members , the kidnappers threatened to plant six pounds of crystal meth on them if they didn't comply, that we would be framed and that they would kill us all, we could not decide what to do , recounts one relative.

According to the same version provided in a chat group ,about five hours passed and the police accepted that the youngest two were good for the money , the two managed to escpae in a Dodge Ram Pickup that was at the location.

At the same time family members had made a series of calls to the police and the media.

The Police were already nervous , they had been informed over the radio that they were being searched for by the anti-kidnapping division. This had made the police even more nervous and as they were discussing , that I had escaped , they began to taunt me over the radio , which gave me the chance to escape across country and I arrived at the Ejido de Nayarit highway, said Sanchez. He assured later , that Marco , one of his brothers , had gone to the offices of the Ministerial Police , where he waited for the anti-kidnapping group.

This government are a mafia , no more robbing the people, commented another of the brothers in an interview with the Municipal Police. The brothers claim they have not had any notice from the PGJE , and that until this Friday 9th of January , were not even given a case number.

The family of Sanchez said that approximately three months ago ,  the Municipal Police arrived in the morning , and violently smashed up the house . They also said that they were Municipal Police who arrived at the side fence of the ranch , the police stole 2 flat screen TV's , cell phones , and five thousand pesos , they were like street thieves.

One of the women present , said that one morning in September , she encountered three hooded men in blue uniforms breaking into her house , they broke down the door then beat her husband. They said they wanted drugs , punching and punching him. The blows all on the head hurt my husband , they pulled out Tasers and forced me to take off my clothes , then they beat me , they told us that if we did anything , things would get very bad for us.

When they were asked on this occasion to make a complaint , they said no" we are fearful of repercussions", remembered the head of the family, who has lived in this place for 25 years dedicated to the breeding of sheep , goats and chickens.

" Now what are you thinking of doing?" , if you are asking replied the head of the family ,

" well to sell up here " , but what are we going to do? we are in fear living here.

Municipal extortion and kidnapping

Publicly the Attorney General in Mexicali for the Attorney General of Justice for the state, Fernando Ramirez Amador , was the first to confirm the crime, he affirmed that he received the complaint in the unit of foreign crimes at Kilometre 43 , in relation to the kidnapping of four people.

He said that the ransom for release was thirty five thousand dollars, even though the delivery of money did not proceed , for the category of research of the facts for the inquiry was carried out by the Assistant Attorney Generals Office , against the PGJE for organized crime.

This indicated that there will be no tolerance for impunity, if Municipal Agents were involved they were investigated , but he gave no more information about what happened , hiding behind the secrecy of the investigation , which prevented him from informing.

Unofficially ZETA was informed that the PGJE was investigating the possibility that Municipal Police working in the Mexicali Valley are extorting persons engaged in criminal activity. As far as we know some of the Agents have been kidnapping drug dealers and other related criminals , to get money , with the idea that the delinquents will not complain ,but this time they did complain , said a Ministerial Investigator of the state.

 At least ten Officers involved

For the Director of Municipal Police in Mexicali, Alejandro Monreal, he cannot tolerate this type of attitude , in the confirmed case of the kidnapped family. For the Police Agents involved , they are being investigated by the PGJE and the DSPM.

We urge citizens to continue reporting crimes , so there wont be anybody acting with impunity, against these agents who operate against or on the margin of the law, we are making investigations , internal as well as external, we are procuring all the information available to the PGJE confirmed its director.

He explained that the report was received since Sunday the 4th of January at one in the afternoon, at that time they attended to the victims in a personable way , both the operating Deputy Director Alejandro Galindo as well as the Commander of the valley , Rene Tanori Hernandez.

They gave the attention to the victims to build the confidence that they would be supported and protected by us, as well as provide them with all the documentation that is needed to strengthen the investigation folder of the Attorney General , in which sense they have already fulfilled their service roles.

They were given access to take photos of the units that were in service , the identities of the agents who were working at that time.

Monreal recorded that in a equal manner , the investigation led to the arrest of 2 Municipal agents related to the possible kidnapping of 4 foreign players on the Mexicali Eagles team.

The most recent precedents against agents under Direction of Municipal Public Safety , involving kidnapping appeared on November 10th 2014, when at the end of a game of baseball in the Pacific League , when four players from the Mexicali Eagles were deprived of their liberty by two Municipal Police Agents.

The foreign players , Daniel Herrera , Jose Sanchez , Mason Tobin , Matt Gorgen , went for a late dinner , when they were detained by Municipal Police , from here there are two different version of events.

The agents , Carlos Roberto "N" and Samuel de Jesus "N", declared in front of an audience on 28th of November , that they meant to extort the players but not kidnap them. They pointed out that the baseball players had a bag of Marijuana , and to avoid being arrested the players offered 120 American dollars and 1400 pesos in cash.

After taking the money , they let them go with the drugs , however a few minutes later , the returned to stop by a fire , after realising it was the same group of players they let them go again, but they affirmed that the baseball players had returned to offer another 1200 pesos extra , to insure the Police kept the matter confidential.

On December 29th 2014, two of the four players presented themselves before a proof hearing, they testified that they were kidnapped by Municipal Police men , had handed over to the officers some twenty thousand pesos , because the Police requested money at took them at gunpoint to a nearby cash dispenser.

The other two players were dismissed as soon as the regular season was over so they didn't agree to return to give statements.

We are gathering information on the personnel who were working at the time of this incident, there were 10 agents in four units that were working at the time of the incident.

They have been given all the necessary documented information, all the documentary evidence that the office of the Attorney General requires , in the case they require more information about Police men not involved in operations that day , we will provide that too, for the moment we have 10 agents involved and the proper thing is going to be done , indicated the head of DSPM.

As a precautionary measure the Director of Municipal Police , stated that agents had already been removed from the area, and said that for not following the protocols of law , the Police men had been suspended, and that until this time none of them had returned to work.

According to the General Law for the Prevention and Punishment of the crime of kidnapping , federal law that applies state wide throughout the country and adopted in May 2014, Article 9 states that kidnappers will receive sentences in the region of between 40 and 80 years in prison, but increases have been stipulated in the article 10 , of 50 to 100 years in prison if the kidnappers have been members of any institution of public safety, law enforcement , administration of justice , or the Mexican armed forces or impersonators of any of the above

Original article in Spanish at Zetatijuana.