Mexicali chief disputes protection-payment reports
By Cartel Insider Wire Desk · Edited by Mica Treviño
Original reporting: El Imparcial
What happened
Luis Felipe Chan Baltazar says municipal police have received telephone extortion complaints but no emergency calls from merchants reporting protection demands.
Reporting and context
Mexicali’s municipal police chief says the department has received no emergency calls from local merchants reporting protection payments, despite a state legislator’s warning that the practice is increasing in Baja California. According to El Imparcial, Luis Felipe Chan Baltazar drew a distinction between those reports and the telephone extortion complaints his officers do handle.
Chan Baltazar, head of the Municipal Public Security Directorate, was responding to comments by local legislator Diego Echeverría about an increase in demands known as cobro de piso. The chief said he did not know whether Echeverría was referring to telephone extortion. His account concerned reports received by municipal police in Mexicali.
El Imparcial reported that callers frequently contact residents from other parts of Mexico, posing as raffle promoters or parcel delivery workers. Chan Baltazar said police respond to complaints involving several methods of telephone extortion and reiterated that merchants had not called the emergency number to report protection demands. He said the telephone cases had not escalated further.
Original reporting: El Imparcial.