A Mexican Cartel Set Up Its Own Shitty Internet And Forced Everyone To Use It
A few months back cartel members had knocked down internet antennas leaving entire towns without service.
A Mexican drug cartel forced entire towns in the Mexican central state of Michoacán to use their own shitty makeshift internet service for a price twice as expensive as that of a legal service provider…or be killed.
The over five thousand residents of Cenobio Moreno and San Juan de los Plátanos, in Michoacán, paid month after month over 1000 Mexican pesos (roughly $60) for a makeshift cartel internet service to Los Viagras cartel, according to Michoacán authorities.
Since at least a year ago Los Viagras cartel started their own internet service made out of rigged antenas, stolen modems and shitty local engineers forced to set up the service to work for at least two entire towns.
An anonymous complaint to the Mexican army detailed the extortion racket and Mexican authorities launched an operation to dismantle the network. Authorities seized three different properties containing several “narco-antennas”, computers, wiring and internet modems, according to a press release made public by Michoacán state authorities on Dec. 29.
“The criminal network was making around 4 million pesos (a bit over $230,000) a month from forcing local residents to use their internet service,” Michoacán state police said on the presser.
Locals said they were paying up to 1000 Mexican pesos each month, more than twice than the average price charged for high-speed internet service for a family home in Mexico.
“According to our investigations it was in August 2023 when the criminals began enforcing the use of their own internet service warning that they would be killed if they did not pay,” authorities said.
A few weeks back, on December 14, in the same region several internet antennas belonging to Mexico’s top phone and internet service provider Telmex were damaged by alleged members of Los Viagras cartel in an attempt to leave the surrounding towns without internet.
The cartel members knocked down several antenas and cut the wiring on some others, according to authorities.
Los Viagras cartel is the main rival group of the infamous Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in the Michoacán region. They began operating in 2013 mostly conformed by dissidents of the Caballeros Templarios and Familia Michoacana cartel members.
Los Viagras are known for producing methamphetamine to export to the U.S., kidnapping and extortion rackets in the region.
This could be a report for GNET. 👏