The stolen goods trade in Mexico City has become a multi-billion dollar business. Lawyers, notaries, politicians, civil servants and criminal groups are part of a huge network responsible for taking people’s houses or land and selling them on the black market at lower prices. It is a well-oiled structure that consists of locating real estate, investigating the victim, and then disposing of the assets in court, accompanied by false documents and with the help of corrupt officials. The illegal networks, crossing different administrations and political affiliations, left thousands of people without their belongings. According to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System, about 4,039 investigations were opened in Mexico City alone in 2022 for crimes against prominent property.
Héctor Alonso is one of those thousands of victims. Alonso’s father, a builder by trade, bought a 9,065-square-foot plot of land on Mexico City’s Peripheral Ring, one of the busiest streets in and around the capital, in the 1990s. was delayed and in 2000, when he got divorced, the land with the foundation of the building was in the hands of his mother. The following year, the woman placed the property in a trust, eventually proceeding with construction. It wasn’t until ten years later, when work had yet to be resumed, that the problems began.
Next to the property is a settlement that was expropriated and regularized in the 1980s. Nearly 30 years later, in 2011, an employee of the then Land Regularization Commission (Corett), of the Ministry of Agriculture, Territorial and Urban Development, decided to build 3,000 square meters of de Alonsos in this expropriated land and illegally sold that part to his own aunt.
Alonso, 66, only found out after discovering that there were supposedly two owners of the same property on the public property register. At the same time, there were documents stating that both his mother and a third party whom he did not know owned the same property, as he learned of the punishment in this case. Alonso guarantees that the police officer who planned the theft of the property acted in conjunction with notaries and lawyers who helped him regularize the false sales before the government. “What they do is they see they have adjoining land and they say, ‘Let’s see, go to the public record. Who is the owner? Look at a 70-year-old woman. Well, it’s pretty good, why not develop it? There should be no wool.” That is why they conclude that it is easier to purchase the property, says the businessman.
The elderly are the perfect victims of bowel care networks. As the newspaper El Universal recently reported, the Mexico City Prosecutor’s Office has issued a report to the local congress describing how these networks operate. The elderly with properties they do not occupy or visit frequently are the most vulnerable group to the actions of these criminal groups, who pay special attention to properties in high purchasing power areas that are easier to buy later.
All of these ingredients have been fulfilled in extreme ways lately. The so-called case of the Tirado brothers ended with the murder of three people in a two-storey Porfirian mansion in the Roma district, one of the most expensive in the capital. The reason for the crime was the expropriation of the property after the death of the owner, an elderly man who had left the house to his heirs.
The property is located in Anillo Periférico, in the Pueblo Quieto neighborhood of Mexico City, Nayeli Cruz
Real estate disputes then go to court, where both parties to the scam – victim and perpetrator – spend years proving who really owns the property. On this thorny path, many of the victims choose to give up their homes or lands to avoid time and money in court. Other victims told this newspaper that those who tried to take their property offered them a truce for a price.
The latter is the case of Alonso, who was asked to pay five million pesos to return the 3,000 square meters he stole. “We have no access to blackmail because it never ends. This means that we as entrepreneurs cannot interfere in this, because everything must be clear to the people we invite to invest,” the construction company emphasizes.
About 12 years after the start of the legal dispute, Alonso managed to prove in court that the land belongs to his family. The officer who robbed him was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of 37.9 million pesos, according to a Corett internal audit document reviewed by this newspaper. Despite this, the businessman has still not recovered his land, which is now under the protection of the capital’s authorities.
Fake signatures and illegal contracts
Another victim of expropriation networks was María Eugenia Casillas. The woman was living in a family home in the Escandón neighborhood when she was awakened by noises in the property around 7 a.m. on October 6, 2017. About 14 men broke into his home and took furniture and belongings onto the street. Horrified by what happened, Casillas called her brother and asked some neighbors for help in getting the men out of the house. Out of fear, she decided to withdraw and stay with some relatives for a few days, the claims agency says. filed with the Public Prosecution Service to those who had access to this newspaper.
When Casillas went to the State Department to find out what was going on, he found that someone had presented the authorities with an invoice for the house with his signature on the document, so the property would have had new owners. But she didn’t sell it. “They forged her signature or tricked her and said, ‘Sign here,'” said Roberto Casillas, María Eugenia’s brother. They then began a long legal battle to get the property back.
The Casillas family believes that María Eugenia was identified as a possible victim of the expropriation networks when she went to register. It was an 87-year-old lady who showed up alone and after that day they started spying on her, they say. “This property belonged to our brothers,” says Roberto, “my parents were the owners, they were the ones who built this house, when they died they left it to us. There is a document for that [dice que] we were the legal owners.”
Owned by the Casillas family in the Escandón neighborhood, which remains under the supervision of the authorities.
Prosecutors confirmed that this sale was fraudulent and then went to the property to evict the alleged new owners. But the nightmare was not over yet: when they got clarification about what had happened, the house had already been sold by the owners. “The thugs who took over my sister’s house posed as owners and sold it to a woman. That name was also in the public register,” recalls Roberto. “They’ve organized everything. It’s a very well-orchestrated mafia.”
For the fraud to take place, as in many other cases, there was the complicity of notaries, lawyers and officials who registered not one, but two illegal sales. “At the time of the investigation, the house had already been sold. How do you explain this?” says Roberto. Five years later, the family has still not been able to get the house back due to various bureaucratic obstacles, it is said. “We already distrust everyone because so much time has passed and they have not returned to our house. It’s been five years. And they come up with some arguments…”.
Stolen properties for sale by catalog
At least two sources told this paper how a group of businessmen started a business selling stolen property advertised in catalogs. A beautiful, well-dressed woman came to Alonso’s construction company about eight years ago with a large supply under her arm, he recalls. She offered the businessman the purchase of land in areas where it was already difficult to find vacancy due to excessive development, such as in the Roma or Polanco neighbourhoods. “I start asking questions and he says, ‘Listen, I can’t explain all this to you, but if you want, we can arrange a time for the lawyers to come and explain it to you.’
Alonso said yes, prices at the time were well below real estate prices, and a few days later he met the graduates, who arrived well dressed, in expensive chauffeured cars, sales catalogs in hand. “After five questions, they told me, ‘We’re not going to waste your time. We quickly explained to her that this is abandoned land, that IPTU was not paid, that the lady died, that she had no heirs, we recovered it, populated it and sold it.” acquiring land, which wasn’t very good, but he reflects, “It’s an industry so that all these people can live like this. How is it possible that they keep turning the other way? How much does this cost? Who pays all that money?
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Source: La Neta Neta
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
