CJNG extorts business owners in Zona Rosa, Condesa and Roma

Restaurants, clubs, bars and dance tables on Insurgentes Avenue in the Zona Rosa or neighborhoods such as Roma and Condesa pay "fees" to alleged members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG ) that shares the area with a criminal group that operates in Tepito.

This year the criminal group has murdered three businessmen who refused to pay an extortion fee, entrepreneurs said to EL UNIVERSAL on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

They explained that the CJNG cartel demands a minimum fee of 3,000 pesos (US$190) per week for each business and that the criminals come to eat and drink at the restaurant for free.

Last Sunday Marcos Antonio Cardona, 47 and owner of the bar Life in Condesa neighborhood, was murdered by a man who shot at him four times and escaped on a Ford Lobo black truck with chrome wheels.

According to the preliminary investigation number FCH/GJC-7/T1/00437/15-06 Cardona had denounced that criminal gangs were trying to extort him.

"No one ever denounces extortion because, as we have seen, it is dangerous. This man refused to pay and denounced them, so he was killed," one of the businessmen said.

Members of the National Association of Nightclubs, Bars and Entertainment Centers who also requested anonymity said that during the first half of 2015 four businesses in this commercial corridor were closed because the owners were unable to pay the extortion fee.

They explained that the extortionists force the owner or manager of the business to let four people in to sell drugs. One of them monitors the cash register and at the end of the night they demand a percentage of the total sales that goes from 15% to 40% of profits.