The network operates within the vehicle control unit, where vehicles are arbitrarily seized.
With the argument that their vehicle or truck is stolen, around 60 people have declared themselves victims of a corruption network within the Vehicle Control and Vehicle Theft Investigation Unit of the State Attorney General’s Office.
The accusation is directed at Public Prosecutor Lucero Ramos, who has been accused of arbitrarily seizing citizens’ vehicles and then allowing them to be used by the workers of her unit.
On Monday morning, at least 20 people went to the central building of the State Attorney General’s Office intending to speak with Attorney General Gerardo Márquez Guevara due to the multiple cases of illegal vehicle seizures perpetrated by the prosecutor.
According to the complainants, there is a pattern in the seizures: investigators from this unit locate the car owners either at their homes or in a shopping center.
They then tell them that the vehicle or truck they are driving has been reported stolen and therefore must be secured. Upon arriving at the vehicle control unit, citizens are threatened to hand over the vehicle’s paperwork.
Citizens are threatened with arrest if they refuse to hand over their car’s papers, and at no time are they allowed to see the complaint or who reported the car as stolen.
In most cases, the vehicles are luxury cars valued between 150,000 pesos and nearly a million pesos. Despite the vehicles supposedly being secured in the Attorney General’s Office’s lots, victims have documented that they are used as units.
After spending more than an hour in the Attorney General’s Office’s courtyard, the affected individuals were attended to by the coordinator of public prosecutors, Édgar Vicente Cárdenas, who assured them that he would handle each case individually to reach an agreement.
*Blanca Alonso
Blanca Alonso Arévalo was detained in April 2024 along with her husband outside a shopping center. They were accused of driving a stolen truck and taken to the kidnapping unit, where their ordeal began.
“They took us to some offices that belong to the Kidnapping Unit. There was no one there; it was completely empty. They took our cell phones and kept us there until eleven at night.”
Using harsh language, the police threatened Blanca to hand over the paperwork for the Buick truck, which she had just legalized. When she refused, they detained her husband.
Blanca recounted that the police demanded 50,000 pesos to release her and allow her to take her truck, but they did not guarantee that it wouldn’t be seized again because they insisted it had a theft report in Texas.
“My superior says we can let you go if you give us 50,000 pesos, and you can take the truck with the possibility that it might be seized again later.”
In the end, Blanca paid 12,000 pesos for her husband’s release, but the truck remained in the custody of Public Prosecutor Lucero Ramos. When Blanca went to claim her vehicle, the prosecutor told her not to bother because they would not return her truck.
Days later, Blanca saw that her truck was being used by the Attorney General’s Office’s personnel in operations, and to this day, she has not been able to recover her truck, valued at 350,000 pesos, as the Public Prosecutor’s Office insists it had a theft report in Texas.
Mayela Siller
Mayela Siller had her truck seized outside her home, despite the Criminal Investigation Agency officers not having a court order. They took her vehicle with threats.
“That day, I was driving my truck with my brother, who has an intellectual disability. They intercepted me at the corner, telling me there was an incident. They have not proven that this incident exists. They seized my vehicle immediately after the police stopped me.”
Mayela went to the Vehicle Control Unit, where she was attended by Public Prosecutor Lucero Ramos, who began to threaten her and told her that she would never recover her truck because it was stolen and belonged to a person named Juan Flores.
The affected person stated that her truck, valued at 350,000 pesos, is in the yards of the Attorney General’s Office, located behind the central building. Over the days, she has met more people who have been affected in the same way, all directly pointing to Lucero Ramos.
“It has been very repetitive behavior. They do not follow legal procedures, at least in my particular case. I think they liked the truck, and since I brought it twice for inspection, it could be acts of corruption within the Attorney General’s Office.”
Carlos Díaz
In Carlos’s case, his truck was taken in 2022 when he brought it for verification, and they did not want to return it. They told him that the vehicle had a theft report and that he should not fight it, or they would put him in jail.
“The arrangement or agreement is ‘don’t fight for your truck; the truck has a theft report.’ To this day, if we check it on any platform, the vehicle does not have a theft report. They argue that it has a theft report and alterations. The arrangement is ‘we won’t put you in jail, but don’t fight for your vehicle.'”
Carlos’s truck is valued at over 750,000 pesos, and on more than one occasion, he saw it being used by the police, even in license plate inspection operations.
The truck was also used by the relatives of Public Prosecutor Lucero Ramos, who threatened Carlos to stop insisting on getting his truck back.
“They asked me not to fight for it. She told me, ‘Give me the papers and don’t fight for it because I won’t give it back to you,’ that’s what Prosecutor Lucero said. So, it’s an expensive vehicle, and they left us with no way to fight for it.”
Like these three, it is estimated that there are about 60 other people who have been victims of this corruption network operating within the vehicle control unit, where their vehicles are arbitrarily seized.
Source: Super Channel 12
