Up to $1,000 is requested by the mafias that engage in extortion in bathrooms in shopping centers. The modus operandi of these groups is to seduce the men who enter, offering them intimate relationships and then, whether or not they agree to their advances, they identify themselves as alleged officials of state security organizations and threaten to have them arrested. Lgbti community activists comment to SuchWhich which since 2022 are organized to address complaints from victims. The recent and most notorious cases occurred in commercial venues, but similar reports have also been received from Parque Los Caobos, El Calvario and Parque Central. In April 2022, a gang that operated in the male bathrooms of the Sambil Shopping Center was dismantled.
The men’s bathrooms of the Metrocenter shopping center in Caracas became the place of operations of a mafia dedicated to extortion. The group’s modus operandi is to seduce the men who enter, offering them intimate relationships, and then, whether or not they agree to their advances, they identify themselves as supposed officials of state security agencies, intimidate them and threaten to take them to jail unless they turn in certain dollar amount. According to the complaints, the figure has varied between $40, $50 and up to $1,000.
On the afternoon of February 11, two members of the mafia were arrested in metrocenter. Some 29 hours had passed since Aquiles – he declined to disclose his last name for fear of reprisals – fell into the actions of the criminal group: he was stripped naked, threatened, harassed and extorted.
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«I had left early to see rooms because I am moving to a more central area. I am from Valencia and I live further west than Caracas. I had come from seeing a (room) in El Paraíso and when I went up Baralt (avenue) I quickly went in to urinate and everything that happened happened. The worst hour of my life,” the young man told SuchWhich.
Achilles entered the bathroom and went to one of the cubicles, the door of which did not close due to lack of a lock. Dim lighting, stained mirrors, and the stench of urine are the hallmarks of these spaces. From outside, a subject made sexual advances to him, approached him and touched his private parts without his consent.
“You know that this is a public place and what you do is punishable,” the man told him as he touched it. Immediately, Achilles noticed the presence of another subject who was hiding in a nearby cubicle. Both identified themselves as officials of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin).
“They check my phone, they make me undress in front of them, they take photos of my ID and of me with it. After insults, they take me out of the bathroom, at least dressed. One was in front of me showing the handcuffs he had on his waist and the other was behind.
No one said anything on the premises, not even the woman who was sitting in the bathroom corridor and collects contributions for using them. Amid the shoving, the woman spoke with the alleged officials.
Achilles was taken to the emergency stairs of the shopping center. The men stripped him naked again, touched him all over with the excuse that he may “have drugs” and told him about supposed laws and regulations that he violated. They also forced him to look at apparent bloodstains on the walls that they told him belonged to “other fagots” that they had “found in the same thing.”
The alleged officials asked him for a $50 vaccine to let him go. Not having the money was enough for Achilles to receive more shoving, shouting, and insults. He doesn’t know how much time passed while he was on the emergency stairs, he just told the two men that he had no way to pay them.
They let him go after 1:00 in the afternoon, but not before threatening him that if they crossed paths again, he would have to pay them.
? ALERT ⚠️
? This Friday afternoon, a young gay man was extorted and stripped naked by 3 men who defined themselves as SEBIN officials.
We tell you the facts and the modus operandi (Thread) ? pic.twitter.com/kVRUzhcoPN
— Gender Consciousness (@GeneroConcienci) February 11, 2023
Activism against extortion gangs
On February 12, in the afternoon, the arrest of two people who were part of the mafia dedicated to extortion in Metrocenter was known. The apprehension of the subjects was achieved thanks to the articulation of activists from the Lgbti community, and the subsequent action of members of the Bolivarian National Police (PNB).
The lawyer Richelle Briceno He explained that the Public Ministry received a complaint for these events on Friday, February 11. “This happened when two people from the Lgbti community commented on what happened at Metrocenter in the activism group.”
In her social networks, the activist explained that the Prosecutor 98, in special matters of sexual diversity, “She has already been notified of the complaint and the arrest of the extortionists. One of them responds to the name of Ricardo Jose Vasquez».
And the gang that was dedicated to seducing and extorting LGBTI people in the Metro Center shopping center fell.
Brave activists caught them red-handed and handed them over to the police.
There is complicity of these criminals with mall workers pic.twitter.com/VhQ1pcD4qp— Richelle Briceño ?⚧?? (@Richelle_ABC) February 12, 2023
How were they articulated?
On Friday, February 11, after 1:00 pm, Aquiles left the shopping center and reported what had happened to an activism group of the Lgbti community. Two hours later another member made a similar complaint.
The second victim who made the report says that she was in the Metrocenter with her partner and her brother-in-law, who traveled from Guárico state to Caracas for personal paperwork.
They entered the mall and his brother-in-law said he would go to the bathroom to urinate and brush his teeth. The other young people were waiting for him outside.
“We see that at the bathroom door my brother-in-law is talking to someone (the alleged official), he approaches and asks me for his bag to get his ID because they were requesting it. The supposed official says a code, 30-16, and two other supposed officials approach and ask us if we were with him. We said yes and they tell us that we are detained,” says the young man, who also asked SuchWhich keep your identity confidential.
The three were led to the same stairs where Achilles had been stripped, harassed, and touched without his approval.. The young man from Guárico was accused of being a fraudster and of committing lewd acts in a public bathroom, despite the fact that he refused the insinuations of the alleged official.
“After insisting so much on the bathroom, my brother-in-law told the man to respect him because he is not gay and that’s where it all started.” Hours before, Achilles was asked for “at least 50 dollars”, the young people were demanded 1,000 dollars.
While the first victim of the day left without paying a penny, the gang did take the money they had from the second, about $70, after remaining handcuffed and threatened for several minutes.
It’s not the first time
Moises Galveza member of the non-governmental organization Género Conciencia, comments to SuchWhich that given the lack of initiative from the authorities, activism has been organized to stop these mafias dedicated to extortion. It details that in April 2022 the first activism action against these networks was carried out, but in the Sambil Shopping Center (Chacao municipality). They have also received complaints of similar events at the El Recreo Shopping Center (Libertador municipality).
Gálvez details that although now they only talk about the bathrooms in shopping centers, he affirms that they have received complaints from El Calvario, Parque Central and Parque Los Caobos, in western Caracas.
He explains that police officers also apply the same modus operandi or approach homosexual couples to extort them and ask them for money “knowing that homosexuality is not illegal and using articles out of context to make people feel fear under a figure of power.”
The activist points out that, despite the fact that complaints have been filed with the Public Ministry (MP), they have not been resolved because the investigative body, whether it is the Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigation Corps (Cicpc) or the Bolivarian National Police did not Investigations begin to find these mafias, but not until the organized activists themselves, the Police capture the perpetrator.
“That is why we have seen ourselves in the obligation to investigate by our own means,” admits Galvez. “That is when we summon them (the Police), they act and that is when they are arrested.”
Until the publication of this note, the activists have not been able to determine if the extortionists are, in fact, officials of any State security agency.
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