translated from Spanish: 1,908 cell phones in CDMX prisons in one year

Authorities in Mexico City reported from December 5, 2018 to January 10, 2020, thousands of cell phones were seized in capital prisons.
According to a local government statement, 69 communication devices were seized in the first 10 days of 2020 alone.
“It was an instruction by the Head of Government of Mexico City, Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, to increase the actions for the removal of disallowed objects, including cell phones, chips, hands-free and banned substances inside the inmates, as well as to prevent their entry into customs,” said Hazael Ruíz Ortega, local undersecretary of the prison system.
Find out: How to act and how to avoid extortion in the CDMX
Everything that is seised through these reviews, he explained, is made available to the now Attorney General’s Office of the capital.
Over the past week, political maker Denise Dresser told a column in the newspaper Reforma how her 83-year-old mother was the victim of extortion, with other people on social media telling that they have also received calls, allegedly from prisons, to commit this crime.
The Citizen Council for Security and Justice of Mexico City, an organization that for more than a decade has documented the issue of extortion, reported that in January to September 2019 alone it received 21,410 calls from people who suffered an attemptated extortion.
Based on the reports of extortion received in 2019, the Citizens Council has identified the most common modalities through which criminals seek to obtain information or economic resources from victims.
The most common method is so-called “polling calls” with which – under the promise of a promotion, trip or prize – criminals manage to obtain personal data from victims, from names or addresses that can subsequently be occupied for extortion, to banking information. Of the 21,410 extortion reports received from January to September 2019, 34% corresponded to such calls.
The second type is the so-called “kidnappings”, with 25.2% of cases. It consists of demanding money from the victim into believing that a relative of his has been abducted. Criminals seek to deceive the person by giving them data that may be plausible from the alleged abducted relative, or by simulating voices of distress.
The third most common mode is “threats” with 21%. It’s very similar to the previous one, only instead of simulating the family member’s abduction, it simply promises to hurt you if you don’t receive any good or payment in return.
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Original source in Spanish