Loan Sharks Contract Organized Crime as Collection Muscle in Michoacan Sam Tabory - InSight Crime
go to original March 26, 2016

In another sign of the proliferation of the use of violence and intimidation in Mexico, informal money lenders in the embattled state of Michoacán are turning to local enforcers to make debtors turn over their homes.

The State Attorney General's Office in Michoacán has released details about a network of organized crime affiliates contracted by local money lenders to kidnap debtors and subsequently force them to turn over their homes and properties as payment, reported El Universal. State authorities have secured seven properties that were illegally taken in 2011, as a means of payment on behalf of loan sharks.

"These are properties that were taken from their legitimate owners, who were kidnapped and forced to cede the properties as payment for a debt," said a representative of the State Attorney General's Office to El Universal.

Authorities have not named the organized crime group or groups responsible for carrying out the contracted kidnappings and confiscation of property, nor have they indicated whether any arrests have been made. The investigation is ongoing.

El Universal noted in its report that authorities elsewhere in the country are dealing with similar cases, including in the Yucatán, which has seen a spike in express kidnappings in recent weeks suspected of being connected to illegal loan operations.

Read the rest at InSight Crime

Related: Majority of Michoacán Homicides Unrelated to Organized Crime (InSight Crime)

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