American bank accounts drained of $40m by sick Jalisco New Generation Cartel ‘who hang butchered rivals from bridges’

MEXICAN cartels are allegedly using their notoriously brutal tactics in financial scams to supplement drug sales in popular vacation spots.

Tourists have been warned to be on the lookout for increased gang crimes in some Mexican hotspots, where foreigners have recently been targeted for more than just the cash in their pockets.

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The Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG) has shifted some of its resources to conducting a timeshare scam that cost Americans an estimated $40 million in 2022 alone according to the FBI, as reported by Fox News.

CJNG’s fraud began with people who owned property in the popular area of Puerto Vallarta and has already expanded to Cancun and other areas, the US Treasury said.

The department issued sanctions against seven fugitives and 19 Mexican companies connected to the scam last April. 

“CJNG uses extreme violence and intimidation to control the timeshare network, which often targets elder US citizens and can defraud victims of their life savings,” Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said in November.

“The Treasury remains committed to the Administration’s whole-of-government effort, in coordination with our partners in Mexico, to disrupt CJNG’s revenue sources and ability to traffic deadly drugs like fentanyl,” she said.

A financial manager named Steve fell victim to one of Jalisco’s typical timeshare scams in 2011, as reported by USA Today.

One day in 2011, he received a call from someone claiming to be an agent representing a buyer who wanted to purchase Steve’s timeshare for about $20,000 over what he had paid — even though he had not posted it for sale.

Steve had been thinking about getting out of the deal because he no longer used the condo often, so he agreed.

But the agent said Steve would have to pay a $3,900 tax fee to release the property, and soon asked for more and more money to complete the transaction.

Before Steve realized he had been duped, the scam cost him at least $1.8 million.

“It’s almost like an addiction,” said Stephen.

“I kept thinking the next person was going to help me get out of it.”

FBI SAYS HE’S NOT ALONE

The FBI reportedly received over 600 complaints totaling about $40 million from victims scammed through their properties in Mexico in 2022.

The agency issued a warning to American tourists heading to Mexico in April 2023 about the fraud.

“The sales representatives often use high-pressure sales tactics to add a sense of urgency to the deal,” the FBI said.

“Timeshare owners who agree to sell are told they must pay an upfront fee to cover anything from listing and advertising fees to closing costs. 

Some of the fraud cases drag on for years, as the same victim is targeted again and again — like in Steve’s case.

He ultimately lost much more than he had even originally paid for the apartment years after the scam first started when fraudsters told him they were part of the investigative team looking into his case and could help him recoup the lost money.

CARTELS SANCTIONED

A month after the FBI warning, the US Treasury began issuing sanctions on some alleged Mexican cartel members and companies doing business with them as part of an international crackdown.

The sanctions froze the assets of the named individuals or groups and banned American citizens from associating with them.

And last November, the cartel’s fraud network was hit with a new round of sanctions against three Mexican criminals and 13 more companies, bringing the total number of sanctions to 40.

Many of the penalties have been levied against entities based in Puerto Vallarta in the Jalisco state, where CJNG is known to operate.

VIOLENT HISTORY

Officials are concerned about the increase in complaints about financial crimes and their potential link to the CJNG — which has an especially brutal history.

According to US government officials that I spoke to, we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars every single year.

Scott FisherInvestigative journalist

The group and its factions, especially that of notorious cartel boss El Mencho, have been known to decapitate their enemies and hang them from bridges as a warning to others.

Last June eight young Mexican workers at an illegal call center in the area disappeared and were found butchered days later after trying to quit their jobs, according to the Associated Press. 

“Best guess is these kids had decided they wanted out of the business,” an anonymous US official told AP.

“It appears this has happened before,” the official said, noting that he thought the cartel was “sending a message to other defectors.”

Mexican police also reported removing an illegal internet setup and assumed call center in Buenavista last December, according to the attorney general of the Mexican state of Michoacán. 

“Illegal internet antennas were disabled, used by a criminal cell for commercial purposes, under threats and excessive costs to the population,” the AG’s Office said in a translated Facebook post. 

But the number and intricacy of the cartel’s phone scams are outpacing investigators’ ability to keep up with the criminals.

“According to U.S. government officials that I spoke to, we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars every single year,” said Scott Fisher, an investigative journalist covering cartel scams.

The cartels “took over call center after call center, forcing these individuals to work for them. And not only do that, but teach them how to do this and how to do it better and better,” Fisher said.