Celaya City Hall Detects At Least 1,000 Illegal Cameras Placed In Public 

The 1,400 illegal cameras detected on the streets is a figure similar to the number of video cameras that the C4 {The Command, Control, Communications, and Computing Center) of Celaya has.

Security authorities in Celaya, Guanajuato, detected at least 1,400 video surveillance cameras installed illegally on Federal Commission poles, telephone posts, tree trunks, and even on the posts that support the C4 cameras.

Although they don’t rule out that some cameras were placed by citizens, municipal authorities suspect that most were under the control of organized crime that monitors the activities of the Police, Army, and National Guard.

MILENIO was in an operation to remove video surveillance cameras. The city council uses cranes to remove them.

In two days, almost 40 were located, most of them in Valle de Los Naranjos, a neighborhood with a high crime rate due to drug trafficking issues.

“What is this about? We are going to prevent people who are dedicated to organized crime from occupying these cameras. People who need protection for their businesses can do so without any problem, they just have to be at home” said Bernardo Rafael Cajero, Secretary of Security of Celaya.

They have also been detected in the Ejidal, Lagos, Monte Blanco, Del Bosque, Insurgentes, El Campanario and Galaxia neighborhoods, all of which have security problems.

Some cameras were returned to their owners after being removed, but those that were not claimed are under the protection of the municipal authorities.

The Mexican Army divided the city of Celaya into 30 sectors to monitor it, as part of the operation to restore peace, and in all of them they found between 40 and 50 cameras installed outside the norm.

The removal of these devices has been partial. First they are located and then they are removed within days.

The Celaya city council notified the Guanajuato Prosecutor’s Office of the discovery of the cameras, which started an investigation.

“We have dozens, dozens. What happens is that there is secrecy for all these things because in some places there will be reports, but there are dozens of them,” explained Juan Miguel Ramírez, mayor of Celaya.

Cameras were also detected in places far from urban populations. Celaya has at least 12 rural areas, some of which share a border with municipalities with the presence of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel. Cameras have also been found in those places. 

“In the remote colonies, I think it is very important that they have the certainty that we are not against security, we are in favor of security so that these cameras are not used by organized crime,” added Bernardo Rafael Cajero, Secretary of Security of Celaya.

The 1,400 illegal cameras detected in the streets is a figure similar to the number of video cameras that the C4 of Celaya has, which announced an increase in the number of equipment with the arrival of the current administration that intends to acquire more surveillance equipment to protect the municipality, as part of the security strategy.

The authorities ask the population first: to place their cameras on the facades of their homes to prevent them from being removed, and also to ask the city council to connect the cameras to the C4 in Celaya.

Source: Milenio