Authorities in the border state of Sonora were forced to change their story that extortion schemes were not a problem after new videos of cartel gunmen beating innocent victims surfaced recently. The violence is allegedly the result of victims not paying the Sinaloa Cartel for the right to work.
Initially, the Sonora Attorney General’s Office tried to downplay the controversy caused by a video depicting cartel gunmen beating a taco vendor in Caborca. The city is a known drug corridor for the Sinaloa Cartel.
In response to the controversy, the Sonora Attorney General’s Office posted on social media that they had spoken with the vendor and the incident was actually related to a customer who was refused service. In their post, authorities show the victim’s face who ultimately did not press charges.
As Breitbart Texas reported, Sonora Attorney General Claudia Indira Contreras Cordova had previously told local news outlets in 2022 that there were no cases of extortion filed in her office.
On Tuesday morning, a second video went viral which showed Sinaloa Cartel gunmen beating two men with a wooden board at an auto mechanic shop. The video again sparked outrage. The alleged motive for the beating was the failure of the mechanics to pay a protection fee to the Sinaloa Cartel.
On Tuesday night, the Sonora Attorney General’s Office issued a new statement claiming they had charged another man in the city of Nogales who had been extorting and assaulting taxi drivers. They also promised to closely review the mechanics’ case in Caborca. While they were forced to admit the beating was tied to apparent extortion, their statement does not mention the taco vendor incident.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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