The forced business that ended in an operation
The authorities made a joint deployment in Xalapa, Veracruz. Prosecutors, the military and the National Guard intervened in 15 commercial premises.
The result: 180 insured slot machines. Everything indicates that they belonged to a criminal group.
Extortion with a face of entertainment
The Prosecutor’s Office explains it bluntly in its statement. The method was simple and brutal.
The criminal group placed these machines in commercial establishments, demanding payment of floor rights from those who refused to allow their installation.
Translation: either you accept the illegal device in your business, or you pay. ‘Protection’ always has a price, even if today it is disguised as entertainment.
Merchants from different colonies lived between a rock and a hard place. Install a machine you didn’t want or face the consequences.
The operation is part of the much-publicized National Strategy against Extortion. The machines were seized, yes. But the question that remains is more uncomfortable: how many businesses continue to operate under this same fear? How many similar ‘deals’ go unnoticed?
They take away the machines. The relief for traders must be real, not just another official headline. Memory is short, but the patterns of organized crime are terrifyingly consistent.
