The recent arrest of a cartel figure in Jalisco has been linked to several extortion cases and arsons in the border city of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexican authorities revealed.
Investigators with the Baja California Attorney General’s Office (FGE) tracked down and worked with their counterparts in Jalisco to arrest a man known as El Matute, who is the accused mastermind of a cell of gunmen that operated in Tijuana, extorting taxi drivers and local businesses. Due to Mexican laws, authorities only identified El Matute as Luis “N”.
Information released by the Baja California FGE revealed that from Jalisco, El Matute would coordinate a cell of gunmen that would go to local businesses and threaten them, or else. The gunmen would also get on local taxi cabs as customers, and once on board, they would threaten the driver, telling them that they now worked for them and would be forced to pay a protection fee.
According to Baja California’s Attorney General, Maria Elena Andrade, the group was already linked to four separate arson attacks, presumably used to get their victims in line.
The investigation centered on the arrest of some of the gunmen, and police investigators were able to track down the communications between them and El Matute, who was living in Zapopan, Jalisco.
The man known as El Matute avoided traveling to Baja California because he had pending charges in that state, including murder, authorities revealed.
The crackdown on extortions by state authorities comes soon after federal authorities arrested the mayor of the city of Tequila in Jalisco and two of his top aides for using their position to extort local businesses on behalf of Cartel Jalisco New Generation, Breitbart Texas reported at the time. That case has drawn widespread attention to the growing problem of extortion in Mexico, which had largely been ignored by government officials.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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