Uber Is the Portal to the Black Markets of Mexico City Luis Chapparo - Motherboard
go to original May 31, 2016

Alberto is not a drug dealer, an illegal firearms seller, or a document forger. He’s a fortysomething Uber driver in Mexico City who just so happens to have those connections.

I first met Alberto last year on an Uber ride from Coyoacan to Mexico City, where I live. He and I made small talk as we rode along in his car, which is registered to him and used for Uber fares. At some point, I joked about how I wished I had a doctor’s degree. That way, I could make more money than I do as a journalist.

“Well,” Alberto replied, arriving at my destination. “I can help you get one.”

I’ve thought about it ever since. Having made zero contact with Alberto for a year, I decided to call him up. What did he mean when he said he could help me get what I only assumed was a counterfeit doctor’s degree?

As it turned out, he would show me. Alberto, my Uber driver, would be my line to a hidden side of Mexico City, one of the largest cities in the world to legally authorize the ride-hailing app.

As Uber drivers come from diverse backgrounds, some of them inevitably happen to already be plugged into the criminal underworld, according to Alberto, whose crisp hairdo is a holdover from a previous life in the Mexican military.

These sorts of drivers are primed to double as middlemen between passengers and the capital city’s black markets. And their networks of contacts can earn them extra cash on the side, as passengers often must tip drivers for making the appropriate connection, be it for drugs, illegal “never used” firearms, or forged passports and college diplomas.

Of course, I wouldn’t actually make a transaction. But with Alberto as my guide, I’d Uber my way to a clandestine shop inside Mexico City’s black market for counterfeit documents for a glimpse of how the process works.

Read the rest at Motherboard

Related: Latin America Is Uber’s Star Performer in 2016 (BDLive)

Related: Uber Knows Too Much About You (Motherboard)

Image: Bernard Lee

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