Thursday, August 19, 2010

Used Car Part Businesses Hit Hard by Extortion, Murder

Álvaro Palos López, 35, was killed on Tuesday afternoon a few yards from his junkyard, the Yonke 48 located on Manuel J. Clouthier 1036, in Col. Salvárcar. He was running from his assassins, who caught up to him and gunned him down right in front of a ravine. He had refused to pay a quota of $1500 pesos (about $115 U.S.) per week, demanded by extortionists witnesses said were identified with La Linea. In May the manager of the enterprise, a man identified only as Guadalupe, was murdered after the owner refused to pay the extortionists. Guadalupe tried calling 066 (equivalent to 911) and the operator heard gunshots. They sent the Red Cross ambulance but Guadalupe was dead when they arrived.

In another case a junkyard owner was kidnapped and, according to the story in Diario, his family paid a ransom fee of $200,000 pesos (about $15,000 U.S.) but the victim' body was found on May 10, decapitated. Junkyard owners complain that a group of suspected extortionists were jailed but later released because of a "poorly prepared case." Since that time, about two weeks ago, they said, extortion cases among junkyard owners have increased. One person interviewed said that the number of junkyards has declined from about 800 in 2008 to 500 now, due principally to the threat of extortion.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Word on the street is that La Linea is doing most of the extortion and kidnapping, to raise money to keep fighting the drug war. They've turned against the civilians of Juarez.