Chivis
Martinez for Borderland Beat from DW
Sprawling ranches and
houses with escape tunnels seized from drug lords have gone under the hammer in
Mexico's capital. Some of the properties, including one where a cartel chief
was killed by his brothers, got no bids.
Mexico's government has
raised just under $3 million (€2.64 million) at an auction of luxury properties
that once belonged to drug cartel leaders.
The 27 sites on offer
included gang safe houses, vast estates, and mansions with swimming pools and
escape tunnels. But in the end only nine of them were sold.
The earnings amounted
to just a third of the $8.8 million the government had been hoping to raise for
poor communities in the country's south.
Grisly
murder scene
One house linked to the
Beltran Layva drug cartel in Mexico City was sold for $753,315. But the luxury
apartment [above] where the gang's leader, Arturo "El Barbas" Beltran, was
killed in 2009 found no buyer.
The $1.6-million
"Los Tres Garcia" ranch in the State of Mexico, the most expensive
item up for auction, also received no bids, according to local media. The
property belonged to a relative of Edgar Valdez Villareal, alias "La
Barbie," a drug lord and hitman who is currently serving jail time in the
United States.
There were, however,
buyers for a vacation home in Cancun owned by a former boss of the Gulf cartel,
and a house linked to linked to the Arellano Felix gang in Rosarito near the US
border.
Funds
to go to poor areas
Mexican President
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the proceeds from the auction would go to poor
communities and victims of drug violence in the southern state of Guerrerro.
"In addition to
acquiring a good, they will be also be doing good, that is, they will be
helping those who need support because of the situation of poverty and
marginalization they suffer," Lopez Obrador said of the buyers ahead of
the event.
After taking office in
December, the leftist leader pledged to tackle violence and corruption. In one
of his first acts as president, he implemented an austerity scheme that
involved selling the presidential plane and other government-owned vehicles.
Mexican authorities
said they planned to hold more auctions in the next few months to redirect the
proceeds of crime to poor areas.
An auction at the end
of May raised $1.5 million from the sale of assets seized from organized crime
syndicates, including Porsches and a Lamborghini Murcielago. The money raised
from that event was for disadvantaged communities in Oaxaca.
Which the poor refers to those greedy Mexican officials. Truly doubt that the amount raised will do little to those who need it. There are millions of people who are struggling.
ReplyDelete5:36 The idea is helping poor people honey, not eradicating poverty from the whole. Continent....
DeleteYou could send your two peisos and save a life, and that life might be the kidnapper that won't be there to kidnap you.
The Russians make vacation homes for the farmers and the laborers a year long, no more B&B for the rich only.
Selling will be hard because bureaucrats are forbidden from stealing, and ther may be more to come, EPN's White House, mean his wife's la gaviota property may soon get a sign for sale, she did nice for herself there. And there is a divorce settlement coming her way.
Mils is a loony lefty,who woulda thunk it
DeleteYeah, cuz what bona fide purchaser wants to buy high dollar, high profile real property from the government's asset forfeiture program seized from a cartel boss and all his associates?
ReplyDeleteThat los tres garcia house is ballin
ReplyDeleteis there a website or pics somewhere online were i could see this place
DeleteAnywhere to see it? Curious to see how the other half lives.
DeleteWho would wanna buy these houses anyway? Even if these houses were given away for free i wouldn’t want one. I would be terrified a commondo would come kill everyone at night
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that's a genuine fear
DeleteYou can Airbnb it out to thrill seekers. Worst case scenario, you get no review.
Delete3:06 you sir won the comment thread
DeleteYeah, like who would want to live in a places where people were tortured (just think of all the creative ways), gutted, flayed, dismembered,decapitated, burned alive, beat to death pinata style, hung and shot, fed to animals, or made into pozole, ...(did I forget anything)?
ReplyDeleteMaybe Santa Muerte devotees, necrophiliacs, or modernday Mexican Draculas would be interested. IMO, any properties owned by narco-cartel minions must have terrifying psychological loadings that only weirdos could relate to.
I can see a proud owner of a property pointing out:
"Out there by the barn is where X used to (fill in modes of torture and death) and over in the field is where there are fosas full (X number) victims. And over in the mansion in the bedrooms is where there were orgies that Caligula would envy. Would you like to stay the night?"
Finally, maybe these "evil" properties could become tourist attractions for the psychopaths of the world?
Mexico-Watcher
The permanent property of the Mexican government should be managed by REO specialists and turn profit, NEVER TO BE SOLD, unless there is an offer they can't refuse.
DeleteI'll bid for La Barbie ranch.
ReplyDeleteWhere? I, have dual nationality Mexican and American.
The house he was caught at was cool imo. I would buy it
DeleteSo now that they got no buyers, what will happen to the properties???
ReplyDeleteI presume the government will 'sell' them to someone well connected for nothing (since the auction has 'proved' that these properties have no value).
Good point.
DeleteThose that weren't sold were probably instructed not to by those.
Did they auctioned a small plane for my recreational? I like to buy one, I have $1000000 to spare.
ReplyDeleteYeah, imagine buying a Beltran property and then have...
ReplyDelete- one of his numerous enemies show up to shoot the place up because he's so coked up he thinks the Beltrans are still there
- another of his enemies show up to shoot the place up because he thinks if you bought it, you must be with the Beltrans
- the Beltrans show up to shoot the place up because you disrespect their memories by being in there