The merchants behind the murders in Tepito

Translated by El Profe for Borderland Beat from La Silla Rota

        

Families dedicated to large-scale commerce in the 'Barrio Bravo' and in the Historic Center could be behind the adjustment of accounts.
 

by Antonio Nieto
 

A group of long-time merchants in Tepito, headed by one with surname Murillo, founded the group La Unión in 2009 in order to protect themselves, but they were betrayed by the people who promised to "clean up" the area of kidnappers, extortionists and assailants.

Almost 10 years after that, Murillo brought together at least five families of merchants who import materials from China, have warehouses, public parking lots, and land transport companies with the aim of retaking the original idea of La Unión, but this time the gunmen would be hired by them and not by partners dedicated to the sale of drugs, as happened in 2009 with the Hernández Gómez Brothers. 

The recent killings in Tepito and El Centro have focused on extortionists from the "Unión de la B" ['El Betito de la B', 'Tepito Union']  and its imitators that keep quotas on the nearly 5 thousand vendors of the Barrio Bravo and El Centro, according to the investigations of the Attorney General's office (PGJCDMX ).
 

This time it could be families engaged in large-scale trade who may be behind the account adjustments.
 

The investigators of the PGJ do not point them out directly, but some investigative agents and the Secretariat of Public Security of the capital (SSP- CDMX ) obtained information that they finance the assassins without the purpose of forming a new criminal group, but only to end payment of derecho de piso. 

The request of this new organization of merchants is to also eradicate those who are suspected of being in collusion with some employees of the Mayor's Office of Cuauhtémoc, since reports from the SSP indicate that some members of the Unión wear vests and credentials of the Cuauhtémoc delegation when requesting their quotas. 

They then return days later to demand payments under threat of death; that is to say, the Unión de la B charges dues twice over. 

According to the reports of the SSP, which has a special group investigating the situation in Tepito, is that the families are not allied with Fuerza AntiUnión or with any other criminal group.
 

The gunmen they hire would be independent, but also inhabitants of Tepito.

OBJECTIVES ELIMINATED
 

The authorities do not know precisely how many alleged extortionists have been murdered, nor how many members of the Unión de la B have died at the hands of the new organization of united merchants or at the hands of Fuerza AntiUnión, but they know that the main generator of collection of derecho de piso was riddled with bullets last May. 

This concerns Omar Sánchez Oropeza "El Gaznate", who from an office in Plaza Santo Domingo ordered and administered the extortions for the "El Betito" group. 

This man had been arrested 7 times, two of them in 2016, but he always obtained his freedom.
 

On May 6 of this year he was shot to death when he was driving a BMW on Belisario Dominguez Street in El Centro. 

He had been threatened in some narcomantas allegedly signed by the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), but with new information in the investigation it was discovered that the threats against those who collect fees came from the merchants themselves and not from drug traffickers.
 

"For them to emerge, the Fuerza AntiUnión took advantage of the confusion that already existed between the fragmentation of the Unión, the arrival of the true Jalisco Cartel, and the compliance of the merchants tired of their moves ... But the AntiUnión's objective is to create a front against the people of Betito, a front in which many groups of drug dealers can enter, because they were under his yoke, but the AntiUnion isn't necessarily 'kicking out' all the extortionists, it's more of an all against those of the B," said a merchant leader interviewed on condition of his identity not being revealed.

He reiterated that the merchants do not seek to conceive a new criminal group, such as the original Union of 2009, sponsored by Édgar Valdez Villarreal "La Barbie", but instead recover properties, warehouses, and streets of Tepito and El Centro like Peña and Peña streets, under the control of the Unión de la B.

He warned that since 2016 there have been loses of millions [of pesos], because a lot of merchandise remains in the hands of extortionists, such as cigars and clothing, which is why wholesalers moved to other parts of the country and stopped buying with families that import Chinese merchandise.

As published in La Silla Rota, after the fall of "El Gaznate", the leader of collections is an individual nicknamed "El Manzano", based on a report by the SSP entitled "Organigrama La Union."
 

This weekend, two other alleged extortionists were killed in the street, Joaquín Herrera and Vidal Alcocer. 

They were riding a motorcycle and were attacked by an armed commando; they were shot more than 20 times and later were identified as Miguel and Christopher, who were designated as part of the "Union de la B."

According to PGJ statistics, in August and September there were 12 murders in Tepito, Morelos and El Centro, while in June and July there were five.