Different Types of Kidnapping in Mexico and How To Remain Safe
Hi, I’m Kim Moyer from The World Protection Group and I want to talk to you a little bit about kidnapping, or company has an office in Mexico City. So, we do quite a bit of protection work in Mexico. And I want to talk to you about three different types of kidnapping.
One is called Express kidnapping. First of all, Mexico is number one country in the entire world in kidnapping. So, if you’re going to travel to Mexico, I highly recommend that you get some kidnapping and ransom insurance.
One type of kidnapping you want to talk about is Express kidnapping. Express kidnapping is where sometimes it could be the police, sometimes it could be a lower low lower level drug cartel. Sometimes it could just be bad guys or a kidnapping ring in Mexico.
What they will do is kidnap you before 12 o’clock and what they do is they have you go to the ATM, take out the maximum amount that you could take out money wise from the ATM, three $400 and then they will hold you for several hours. Once it’s after midnight, they will turn around and have you go back to the ATM, try to draw out another three $400. And at that point, they typically leave you.
The second type of kidnapping is kidnapping for ransom. So, I’m going to use Baja Mexico as an example, which is very close to San Diego. So, if people are traveling from San Diego to Baja, the kidnappers typically know that American house in San Diego areas, maybe around $500,000. So, what they will do is they will kidnap you, and they will try to get a ransom and the ransom, they know that the house is valued at half a million dollars. So, they know maybe they can get 10s of thousands of dollars, possibly $100,000. That way, the family then will use the collateral in the house to go and pay for the ransom.
Another type is virtual kidnapping. And this type of kidnapping is a little bit different. So for example, let’s say I’m in Mexico City, and while I’m in Mexico City, on leaving to go back to the United States, and so I get in a cab and the cab speaks in the cab person driver speaks English. And so that cab driver starts chatting and wants to know a little bit about me and my business and that kind of thing. And he asked for a business card, so a given business card in my company, and he takes me a year or what flight are you on? And what is the airline so I’m on United flight number 503, 4 o’clock departure from Mexico City back to the United States.
So, unbeknownst to me, unbeknownst to my company, or family members, this person could be a kidnapper, and what he’s doing is creating that he’s kidnapped me. I’m on a plane from Mexico City going back to the United States, which is a 4-hour flight. So now, he’s calling my company and trying to arrange for a ransom payment as quick as possible. Before my flight goes back to arrives in the United States and they realize that I haven’t been kidnapped and I’ve been on the flight the entire time.
One thing I want to mention about Mexico, one last thing is that there is no rhyme or reason with kidnapping. Just because a ransom is paid to the kidnappers doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to be safely returned. But, just because you pay the ransom doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to be safely returned. So, I want you to realize that every kidnapping is different and each one, the outcome is different in Mexico.
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