Mexico City, Mexico: La Unión Tepito Nueva Generación

Video translation is as follows:

Anonymous Merchant: They arrived. Well, they had come to collect on the realty tax. They started to threaten me. They said: Look you son of a bitch. You’re not going to do what you want. You’re going to start paying a monthly fee. All the businesses are going to start paying monthly. He said that if I called the police that I had no idea how many thousands of people they had within their group.

Reporter: At the beginning of the year, merchants from the Historic Center of Mexico City denounced extortion from a new criminal group that calls itself La Unión Tepito Nueva Generación.

And although the authorities say they didn’t know that there was a new criminal cell in the capital, the testimonies show another reality. The newspaper El Universal detailed a case of a small businessman who has his business on Calle Madero and was extorted from the cartel.

Under the threat that they will harm their loved ones, criminals require each business a fee of 50,000 pesos a month in cash. It all starts with a yellow envelope that is left at the door of the business.

Inside there are photographs of the store, the owners, and their children. Then they call the cell phone number of the employer at his address. And they warn them that it’s an extortion.

In some cases to intimidate, they are also left with photos of other victims who resisted, men beaten and bloody. And in most cases the images come with a message written in capital letters that says: WE ARE SERIOUS.

The businesses that have become the target of this supposed new criminal organization are located on Calle Madero in the Historic Center, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas, and the Roma - Condesa corridor. All in the Cuauhtémoc municipal center.

For his part, the Secretary of Citizen Security Omar García Harfuch of the nations capital said he was unaware of the existence of the criminal group Unión Tepito Nueva Generación.

As explained by the police chief, the authorities have identified several people who are dedicated to extorting merchants and businesses. And that they pose as members of certain criminal groups.

However, he clarified that this doesn’t mean that a cartel or new criminal group has not emerged as such. We have no indication of the existence of this group. In this administration we have more or less 224 extortionists detained.

In December we had 11 in a specific area of ​​Tepito. Of which 6 were very relevant and all linked to the modus operandi stressed the Secretary of Security Omar García Harfuch of the nations capital.

This past January 10 of this year a business located on Calle José María Marroquí in the Historic Center was consumed by a fire that according to reports from the emergency group of Mexico City was caused after a short circuit.

Nevertheless, the newspaper Milenio released a video showing a man who set fire to the grocery store. In the video you see a person arrive with a dolly loaded with a black bag. Within seconds he lowers it and places it in front of the establishment's metal curtain. 

Subsequently he takes out what appears to be a lighter, sets fire to another object and throw this into the package. However he left the dolly in place. The business that was damaged by the flames belongs to a person who according to witnesses had not paid the so-called realty tax, money demanded by a criminal group.

He is a merchant who has a business in the Centro Histórico on Calle José María Marroquí. There have been several victims and this has been very cumbersome because they are extorting and threatening everywhere. The extortions are above 50,000 pesos.

This is how they do it: in the bags they carry rags and papers, but they’re already presoaked in gasoline or diesel. They bring them near the business and set them on fire. And in the establishments curiously there’s always a dolly outside where they light their fires narrated witnesses and merchants to Milenio News who asked for anonymity.

Sol Prendido Borderland Beat   Source