• RESPONSE: Organized crime groups in at least nine Mexican states are steering the coronavirus response in some towns and cities by distributing essential goods, enforcing lockdown orders, and even providing loans to those in need, according to government reports.
• STATES: According to a study conducted by Reforma newspaper, reports of organized crime groups intervening one way or another amidst the coronavirus crisis have been detected in Guerrero, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Guanajuato, Morelos, Jalisco, Puebla, and Colima.
• SINALOA: “These are orders from Los Chapitos: At 10 at night everyone inside their homes, please. We are not playing. This is not a game”, says an unidentified man in a video distributed in the town of El Dorado in Sinaloa. The video refers to one of the factions of the Sinaloa Cartel.
• LOANS: Organized crime groups in some states have even taken advantage of the coronavirus shock to expand their business areas, including lending money to persons in distress, according to Mexican government reports seen by Reforma newspaper.
