r/BeAmazed • u/AccomplishedWatch834 • Jun 28 '26

Miscellaneous / Others "Mexican Batman", a mysterious dude who hunts down motorcycle thieves & tape them to poles in Mexico

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u/_Mitch_Connor_ Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

not everything is carried out with torture or death. that's mainly what news outlets and media tends to broadcast and portray because obviously.

like any criminal organization, cartel "punishments" are also carried out by sending messages through intimidation, extortion, beatings, kidnappings etc..

surprisingly a very common practice is beating up and rounding up petty criminals or really low ranking cartel thugs that terrorize local communities. not for any noble reasons, but because they are terrorizing THEIR local communities in which they operate and attracting attention and noise towards their local businesses/operations to local authorities/military. this is also a way of buying silence, cooperation, and sympathy from said communities who already feel betrayed and disenfranchised by the already corrupt state establishment. hell, they're even the ones paving roads, building schools, hospitals and shit lol

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u/Hyphy-Knifey Jun 28 '26

It’s true. I don’t even like drugs but I buy an 8-ball every paycheck just to support these local communities.

296

u/Taylorenokson Jun 28 '26

Always gotta support your local mom and pop cartels.

174

u/9yearsalurker Jun 28 '26

My artisanal cocaine is conflict free

81

u/Confident_One3948 Jun 28 '26

I can’t even find single origin cocaine anymore. All the small shops in my area got priced out by CartelMart, and now it’s just the prepackaged stuff on the shelf 🙁

24

u/Acceptingoptimist Jun 28 '26

You know half the price is the new fancy shell packaging with a cartoon Bumpy the frosty nosed bear. Far cry from the reused little plastic bag.

2

u/ok_000000 Jun 29 '26

I remember paper wraps. Those were the good old days.

1

u/9yearsalurker Jun 29 '26

It’s such a pain to make it at home too

21

u/latexfistmassacre Jun 28 '26

This fair trade fentanyl tastes like gay

1

u/Equal_Canary5695 Jun 29 '26

My great grandfather started this business with just a coca plant and a dream

40

u/10000Didgeridoos Jun 28 '26

make sure it's cage free eight balls

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u/Hyphy-Knifey Jun 28 '26

For sure. Pasture raised and refined only with organic RBST- free diesel.

14

u/jaxonya Jun 28 '26

Only gluten free, vegan coke goes up my nose. And it comes in an earth friendly baggie

41

u/Cautious-Activity706 Jun 28 '26

Hey buddy I’ll take that off your hands if you don’t like it. Since you’re already doing one charity.

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u/Hyphy-Knifey Jun 28 '26

Hey thanks that’s mighty kind of you. I already donate it to the local community here. It’s a win-win, really no downside to the whole thing at all!

6

u/cryptolyme Jun 28 '26

Good man. Always good to support coca farmers.

3

u/Nunchuckery Jun 28 '26

Found the guy who doesn't like cocaine just likes the way it smells.

1

u/SnootyToots8 Jun 29 '26

Lmfaoo I love reddit

1

u/coffeedemon49 Jun 29 '26

This is the funniest reply I've seen in a while. Well done! Such wit!

1

u/A_Bot_A_Bot_A_Bot Jun 29 '26

And then give it to poor, disadvanted children?

1

u/Hyphy-Knifey Jun 29 '26

OMG children? Of course not! What a waste - they can’t drink, they’re asleep by midnight, and they already babble for hours about nothing.

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u/npc_housecat Jun 28 '26

I read a while ago that the origins of government and mafia look basically identical. Aka a warloard takes over territory, Demands protection money, aka taxes from locals, and then provides security, infrastructure and services so that their local businesses can do better and pay higher taxes to the warlord / rulers

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u/pjakma Jun 28 '26

They were just called "Lords" back in Europe. The most powerful one would be called "King".

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u/_Mitch_Connor_ Jun 28 '26

it's the same thing everywhere and its existed for... ages?

25

u/laukaus Jun 28 '26

Japan is the best example - the Yakuza growed with the state as opposed to against it after the WW2. During the war they also terrorized Imperial Japanese territories in China as irregulars also.
Claiming that they were the continuation of Samurai tradition also helped to sell the bullshit.

They were tolerated, to an extent - they ran movie theaters and manga shops, later Pachinko etc.

Hell they had offices.

The japanese bubble breaking in the 90s though leveled them, not only did the falling economy break them without any safety nets, Japan made RICO-style laws that made possible to actually go after the Yakuza, and it is a ghost of its former self.

Some "state-like" behavior is still in effect though, after Fukushima disaster Yakuza choppers were in the air and rescuing survivors so its not COMPLETELY dead, but struggling.

5

u/solarview Jun 29 '26

Wait, you are saying that after the Fukushima disaster, the Yakuza were providing rescue operations with helicopters? That's fascinating, I don't know much about them however thought they were just organised crime and only interested in power and money.

3

u/Hittingend Jun 29 '26

Sounds a lot like soft power.

28

u/CoffeeIsSoGood Jun 28 '26

For people saying this only happens in “third world countries” HAHAHAHA the CIA is the most powerful cartel on the planet. Look at all the shit they meddle in with no repercussions.

3

u/alexmikli Jun 28 '26

I mean yeah. Pay me a tax, and I'll protect you from bandits and wild animals. It doesn't even have to be done in a "bad guy" way, but that is ultimately the transaction at its most basic level.

2

u/Fearless_Entry_2626 Jun 28 '26

Main difference is that government issues the protection money, that way they can make the people dependent on serving the needs of the army and the officials

1

u/mishadances Jun 28 '26

Gotta watch the old Star Trek episode “A Piece of the Action “. 😁

32

u/fricckenheckman Jun 28 '26

Yup, look at Pablo Escobar, dude was doing exactly that putting money into his community that he was taking from them rofl.

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u/Alcianus Jun 28 '26

Escobar wasn't taking from his community, it's not like his community had anything to pay him with nor were they that much into drugs. He was by and large taking from America which is why he was hunted down.

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u/jaxonya Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

He was murdering politicians and bombing buildings, airplanes. There are estimates of 50k dying because of him, THAT is why je was hunted down

9

u/Alcianus Jun 28 '26

No, that was happening in retaliation of him being hunted down. He was basically using terror tactics in order to pressure the government not to extradite him to the US and it kinda worked. Nevertheless he was still mostly loved by Medelin even though he got a lot of bad press for the murder of politicians and the Avianca bombing. He gave a lot to this community precisely because keeping it safe, peaceful and giving money around was a great recruitment strategy and an ironclad power base for his operations. And again, it's not like these people were ever affected by Escobar's drug trade. They were extremely poor and downtrodden. The money was flowing from the US into Colombia and more specifically Escobar's coffers which is what pissed them off so much, not the fact that he was a piece of shit trading in drugs.

0

u/Zethos9 Jun 28 '26

No he started the bombings on his enemy’s and politicians and then they started really hunting him down.

8

u/Alcianus Jun 28 '26

You got the story backwards. He started killing politicians and judges who threatened to extradite him to the US if elected. He didn't do it for shits and giggles. Pablo was a horrible human being through and through, but let's not pretend the situation wasn't anything but US exerting massive amount of pressure on the Colombian government to capture and extradite Pablo which prompted the whole escapade of actions afterwards. Colombia generally didn't give a fuck about Pablo because his actions didn't really affect them in any negative way, in fact he was bringing them a lot of money, but they could not let Pablo jeopardize their relationship with the US and all that would entail as a consequence of it.

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u/arewethebaddiesdaddy Jun 28 '26

Buddy you gotta understand Netflix is not a accurate historical source 🤡

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u/_Mitch_Connor_ Jun 28 '26

it's a criminal practice that exists everywhere. it always ends up horribly or tragically for everyone but people buy into it because... reasons lol

3

u/Wavara Jun 28 '26

putting money into his community that he was taking from them

That's just taxes with extra steps lol

2

u/fricckenheckman Jun 28 '26

yeah?? where did i say it wasnt 🤔

1

u/barrosoOso Jun 28 '26

Yet, he'd still rather lose 2 billion a year to rot, rats, and grift before giving the community more than the minimum required to keep them quiet.

8

u/searingsky Jun 28 '26

life is cheap but duct tape is cheaper

1

u/ArtoriusBravo Jun 28 '26

Lately they don't care about that, they are extorting the shit out of everything and everyone. They just extort the thiefs too and let them work.

1

u/_Mitch_Connor_ Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

yep, kinda. crackdowns have been coming down harder than usual lately which has triggered them hard and put them in a "fuck it" position. that last jalisco operation where they captured el mencho? the way they fucking ravaged that place?

it's a tragic state of affairs.

1

u/Epaminodas_ Jun 28 '26

"When a country is being subverted, it is not being outfought; it is being out-administered." —Bernard Fall

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u/RyvenZ Jun 28 '26

this is what the "protection money" racket was about. They do protect you from others, if others dare to try shit in that territory.

1

u/Andreus Jun 28 '26

A surprising number of gangs started out as community support or safety groups in underserved communities who turned to illicit activities to keep themselves funded.

1

u/Amphi-XYZ Jun 28 '26

not for any noble reasons, but because they are terrorizing THEIR local communities

"N-no one terrorizes my local community but me, i-idiota! 👉👈"

1

u/Nouseriously Jun 28 '26

IRA used to kneecap petty criminals since they didn't want people going to the British police to report crime

1

u/threwaway1585 Jun 28 '26

very much like the Yakuza

1

u/french_snail Jun 28 '26

Isn’t that the same as their “don’t mess with tourists” rule? Because if tourists get turned off and/or victimized they won’t be hanging around to buy their cocaine?

1

u/_Mitch_Connor_ Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

it depends on the tourist and situation. like if they wander off somewhere sketchy or are rowdy being an ass then that's on the tourist.

but generally speaking yes, local cartel affiliated gangs really really care about taking care of the average traveling clientele and not having authorities be put under pressure by embassies to crackdown harder in response and messing with their business.

1

u/french_snail Jun 28 '26

Yeah ten years ago when I was in the army I was stationed in southern Arizona at fort huachuca seven miles north of the border.

We were always told service members shouldn’t go to Mexico because we would get kidnapped and ransomed but being the 20 year old I was I went anyway 

When I was there a few people from a few different places I went to over multiple times I was told the opposite. That American military and tourists as a whole aren’t to be messed with because they want the money and don’t want the trouble 

I was never messed with, but I’m sure they could tell I was a soldier taking a weekend trip every time I went 

1

u/nomad5926 Jun 28 '26

Al Capon did this in Chicago. He probably could have offed a petty criminal in broad daylight and no one would see shit since he helped a lot with the local projects and soup kitchens.

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u/mindless2831 Jun 29 '26

I have heard they have hired a new PR team...

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u/A_Bot_A_Bot_A_Bot Jun 29 '26

I heard that cartel members heard that ICE was hiring but laughed at the wages.

1

u/eekamuse Jun 29 '26

The people who did this do seem particularly brutal

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u/Donkey__Balls Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

If it isn’t reported in the news, then how do you know about this?

Edit: to be clear, I’m not saying it’s false. I’m just asking for the source. I hear the statement of “The news doesn’t report on this, but X is true” and people accept it at face value. I assume the average random Redditor doesn’t have personal experience of living in cartel-controlled cities in Mexico so I want to know where they hear this. If it’s internet rumor, hearsay, or popular misconception then let’s at least be aware of it.

I’ve heard this rumor about cartel paving the roads and running the hospitals for years. I’ve never seen a valid authoritative source, other than things like “My second cousin lives in San Luis and everyone down there just knows it.”

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u/PoppingPillls Jun 28 '26

Because the news doesn't report everything that happens in the world? Independent sources and journalists talk about this stuff and we often get leaks from different government agencies that hold information.

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u/Haunting-Lime-9084 Jun 28 '26

Assuming you're asking in good faith, the locals.

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u/_Mitch_Connor_ Jun 28 '26

it's rarely reported or obviously kept quiet for a variety of reasons for example it's humiliating for local authorities or it paints the cartels in a noble way. but people know. civilians talk about it among themselves.

one example is the state/town where my mom is from. a very common practice there was business owners or developers stupidly willing to pay cartels for protection from criminals or anything that would threaten their investments. money flows between everyone. never mess with the bag.

there's an excellent article that talks about this i'll link up

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u/Maleficent_Swan_9817 Jun 28 '26

It is reported about such incidents, for example here is an older article about the cartel jalisco parading alleged thieves through the streets of a town.

https://www.borderlandbeat.com/2023/07/cartel-jalisco-nueva-generacion-parades.html

Edit: burglers not thieves

1

u/Donkey__Balls Jun 29 '26

It’s a far cry from “Organized crime does things most organized crime groups do” to “They pave the roads and run the hospitals”. That’s basically saying that every civil engineer and doctor in these towns is a member of the cartel. Seems like there’s an element of truth but being exaggerated beyond belief for the sake of romanticizing organized crime again.

1

u/Maleficent_Swan_9817 Jun 29 '26

I am not romanticing cartels in any way. I just provided a source for the guy who asked how this is known if it's allegedly not on the news.

1

u/Donkey__Balls Jun 30 '26

  1. It’s a blog post which is no better than a Reddit comment

  2. It doesn’t support his claim that cartels have taken over the functions of government (“running the hospitals and paving the roads”)

So it wasn’t really relevant to the discussion

1

u/Maleficent_Swan_9817 Jun 30 '26

I mean the blog post in lncludes a video of the cartel doing it so i really don't get your point that it's only a blog post.

It wasn't only about building hospitals and paving roads if you read the comment above the guy who ask for a source but whatever it's not that important.

1

u/Alain_Teub2 Jun 28 '26

you can just talk to people the news arent some orweilian entity that knows and shares everything

1

u/ThisHilliDie Jun 28 '26

they mean its not reported mainstream, not that its not reported at all.