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Crime Wireless Networking The Internet

Mexican Cartel Provided Wi-Fi To Locals - With Threat of Death If They Didn't Use It (theguardian.com) 97

Posted by msmash from the what-in-the-world dept.
A cartel in the embattled central Mexico state of Michoacan set up its own makeshift internet antennas and told locals they had to pay to use its wifi service or they would be killed, according to prosecutors. New submitter awwshit shares a story: Dubbed "narco-antennas" by local media, the cartel's system involved internet antennas set up in various towns built with stolen equipment. The group charged approximately 5,000 people elevated prices between 400 and 500 pesos ($25 and $30) a month, the Michoacan state prosecutor's office told the Associated Press. That meant the group could rake in about $150,000 a month. People were terrorized "to contract the internet services at excessive costs, under the claim that they would be killed if they did not," prosecutors said, though they did not report any such deaths. Local media identified the criminal group as a faction known as Los Viagras. Prosecutors declined to say which cartel was involved because the case was still under investigation, but they confirmed Los Viagras dominates the towns forced to make the wifi payments.
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Mexican Cartel Provided Wi-Fi To Locals - With Threat of Death If They Didn't Use It More

Mexican Cartel Provided Wi-Fi To Locals - With Threat of Death If They Didn't Use It

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  • Similar to (Score:4, Funny)

    by Vinegar Joe ( 998110 ) on Friday January 05, 2024 @10:05AM (#64133975)

    The British TV licence.

    • I live in the UK, I do not have a TV license as I do not watch it neither broadcast nor over the Internet. They send me a letter once a month with blood curdling threats about what they are going to do to me all over the envelope; inside, on the second page, a mention that I do not need a license if I do not watch it. They know that I do not watch TV - I told the man who came to visit some 4 years ago. I find what they are doing threatening, if I were to do the same to someone who used to be a customer I su

  • Sounds like AT&T (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sinkskinkshrieks ( 6952954 ) on Friday January 05, 2024 @10:06AM (#64133979)
    But seriously, that sucks and shows there is still a lack of an effective police and judiciary Mexico. Also, it's likely the cartel also used the backhaul of this "service" to conceal their own criminal activity.

    • But seriously, that sucks and shows there is still a lack of an effective police and judiciary Mexico.

      It's hard to have effective public services when the legitimate government is in a war with what is effectively a rival government. And the cartels are winning that war in Mexico. The Mexicans have deployed the military, without success. The cartels often outgun the troops that have been deployed.

      Mexico is slowly becoming a Pancho Villa country again, only much more brutal than before. Essentially a bandit republic.

  • Los Viagras (Score:5, Funny)

    by coofercat ( 719737 ) on Friday January 05, 2024 @10:13AM (#64134003) Homepage Journal

    Los Viagras? Well, at least their service didn't go down ;-)

  • Biggest question (Score:3)

    by chipperdog ( 169552 ) on Friday January 05, 2024 @10:21AM (#64134031) Homepage
    What datarate, latency, reliability, and quality did they get for $30/month?
    Might dump my $75/month monopoly cable company crappy internet if it's very usable.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by taustin ( 171655 )

      Since the average income in Mexico is about half what it is in the US, and the monthly fee is about half what you're paying, I'd guess the service will be similar.

  • Meanwhile in the USA (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Zaraday ( 6285110 ) on Friday January 05, 2024 @10:32AM (#64134047)

    People in Mexico could be killed if they don't buy $25-30/month internet service. Meanwhile, people in the United States would kill for $25-30/month internet service!

  • they want cover (Score:5, Interesting)

    by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Friday January 05, 2024 @10:49AM (#64134091)

    I'd guess the Cartel wants cover, they want a lot of regular traffic to hide their own.

    • They likely also want the ability to see whoâ(TM)s robbing them in to the cops.

    • Cover for what? They are already untouchable. If they can set up an ISP and force subscribers under the penalty of death I don’t think internet traffic is a concern.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        Residents should just start downloading Disney movies. The USA will send in the marines to shut the cartel down.

        • Now there's a good idea; this is exactly the type of operation that the Marines have always been trained for and they would probably love to have a chance to take on something like a cartel. Not only that, but the Marines have access to more and better weapons than the cartels could expect to get their hands on in their wildest dreams. Fortify a house and use it for a strong point? That's not going to last long against a tank, that's for sure. And, as Michoacan is on Mexico's Pacific coast, you could ex

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by PPH ( 736903 )

            It's what we did [youtube.com] for the United Fruit Company 100 years ago.

            • Yes, we did send Marines down to Central America at least once back then. However, if I understand correctly, their mission wasn't primarily combat it was preventing damage to United Fruit's factories and/or warehouses during revolutions or civil wars. The Marines guarded the plants and didn't engage in combat unless the property they were guarding was attacked, and they didn't care which side attacked. Everybody understood that whatever the Marines guarded was Off Limits and that was that. This would b

    • Re:they want cover (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday January 05, 2024 @12:48PM (#64134381)
      Honestly this is probably just the cartels getting into other businesses like the Yakuza did in Japan because their traditional revenue sources were drying up a bit. So many places in America have legalized marijuana that it's having a significant impact on there finances.

      It doesn't get a lot of press but Joe biden's administration is very slowly going through the process of the scheduling marijuana at the federal level. It's a very very slow process because there are dozens of things you have to do to take months and months and months in order to deschedule a drug as opposed to how quickly you can throw something on the schedule if you want.

      But make no mistake it's going to happen and when it does it's going to be a huge blow to their finances. Psychedelics will probably follow after that. It's entirely possible that long-term will finally end Nixon's drug war and just legalize everything. There's plenty of evidence that shows treating drug addiction as a medical condition instead of a moral one is cheaper, more humane and infinitely more effective. As the evidence continues to mount it's harder and harder to argue in favor of locking people up for addiction

      So what I think we're seeing here is the drug cartels trying to get into new lines of business. It didn't work for the Yakuza because they bring violence and that disrupts business and sooner or later there's a massive crackdown. The cartels have so much money though that they can literally outgun the Mexican army, so in the short term it won't happen but in the long term as more and more drugs are legalized and the drug war shuts down they'll have less and less money to purchase those weapons. So they're going to try to pivot and go legit before they lose everything.

      • Again with the nonsense. You present no evidence that legalization efforts have hurt cartels.

        • You know you've got Google you could easily find multiple studies showing that it's worth about 1.5 billion dollars a year. That number seems small compared to the cop math numbers they're out there claiming it's half a trillion or some nonsense but 1.5 billion dollars a year buys a lot of weapons.

      • Most of their weapons are stolen from the Mexican government.

      • Marijuana is a low profit, bulky commodity. These are your cocaine (heroin, fentanyl) dollars at work.

  • Comcast approves (Score:5, Funny)

    by DesScorp ( 410532 ) on Friday January 05, 2024 @10:58AM (#64134111) Journal

    The group charged approximately 5,000 people elevated prices between 400 and 500 pesos ($25 and $30) a month, the Michoacan state prosecutor's office told the Associated Press. That meant the group could rake in about $150,000 a month. People were terrorized "to contract the internet services at excessive costs, under the claim that they would be killed if they did not,"

    American broadband companies are envious of their business model, and have subscribed to the Cartel's newsletter.

    • 1. Distribute antennas in villages for WiFi Internet.

      2. Threaten to kill anyone not paying the "subscription" fee.

      3. . . .

      4. Profit!

  • As is to be expected for a group called 'Los Viagras' ;-).

  • Xfinity right behind them... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tracerbb ( 865991 ) on Friday January 05, 2024 @11:13AM (#64134157)
    Xfinity and shareholders are watching the bottom line of this situation closely to see where else this model could work...

  • Why bother providing the service? (Score:3)

    by GoRK ( 10018 ) on Friday January 05, 2024 @11:41AM (#64134227) Homepage Journal

    The dark humor in all of this is that they were actually providing the service. Back in the day, you could just mug 5000 people a month without having to give them anything! I guess there is competition in this space. Hopefully they will be gearing up for a Series A real soon.

  • Itâ(TM)ll only give US ISPs business ideas.

  • This sounds like taxes to me. I'm told these are desirable, so I don't see any problem with this.

  • $30 per month? (Score:5, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Friday January 05, 2024 @01:14PM (#64134435)

    How can I get them to expand into my town?

  • So how do we fix it? (Score:3)

    by Baloo Uriza ( 1582831 ) <baloo@ursamundi.org> on Friday January 05, 2024 @01:32PM (#64134493) Homepage Journal
    Because Cox, Comcast, Charter, AT&T and Verizon are doing the same thing, functionally, to Americans.
  • What an excuse-maker you are for the cartels and a sniveling Pussyville pouter for denigrating self-defense. Look at the butchery of unarmed peoples ... and look at the manly survival of the heavily-armed Ukraine against the worst of Trotsky-slut armies. Kill a cartel member .. kill another ... kill another ... we're talking John Wick butchery. Wonder if this post gets censored by /. like the 1st post I made on this topic. The swimpy-swists prolly MsMash refuse to a

  • I feel a hot wind on my shoulder
    And the touch of a world that is older
    Turn the switch and check the number
    Leave it on when in bed I slumber
    I hear the rhythms of the music
    I buy the product and never use it
    I hear the talking of the dj
    Can't understand just what does he say?

    I'm on a mexican (wi-fi) radio
    I'm on a mexican (wi-fi) radio

  • Please don't give the US telcoms ideas.

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