We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the thieves

Not all Mexican criminals are involved in drugs.  There are “ordinary, decent” crooks as well., and some apparently even go to church.  Though I’m betting the Restored Christian New Harvest Church uses a slightly different version of the Ten Commandments than I learned, the one with all the stuff about not coveting and not stealing.   They should have had one that read Thou Shalt Not Rat Out Thine Pastor.

(My translation is from a Notimex article in last Sunday’s Jornada, which usually doesn’t run notas rotas, but probably couldn’t pass up the chance to tweak the pious — and yeah, in Mexico City, Unidades Habitacionales — apartment projects — you could have a street address like “Fifth Cul-de-sac off Avenue 565)

México City. Capital police detained two suspects involved in violent auto theft, one of whom allowed stolen cars to be hidden in a church, and the other who drove a taxi used as a “wall” during the robberies.

The action occurred in Delegation Gustavo A. Madero, where three suspects riding around in a coral-colored Pointer taxi, plate L-20888, blocked the street to Maria Guadalupe Leyva, 53, who was driving a red Jetta, plate number LYP-73-05.

At the corner of Loreto Fabela and the Fifth Cul-de-sac off Avenue 565 in Colonia Unidad Habitacional San Juan de Aragón, Second Section, two of the delinquents descended from the taxi, and accosted the woman with drawn pistols, relieving her of her car.

They immediately fled the scene, as the taxi driver made way for them and the victim sought help. Minutes later, her car was found at the corner of Loreto Fabela and Avenue 586, in the Third Section of the Colonia, as well as the taxi, which held both the driver and the two presumed delinquents.

Later, uniformed officers asked to see the drivers’ licence of taxi driver Ricardo Crux López, 20, who said he didn’t have it with him using the excuse that he had just started working.

In the course of their routine investigation, the capital police discovered a license in the name of Alberto Iván Irigoyen Vázquez, with a picture identified by the victim as one of the robbers, and whose photo matched Cruz Lopéz.

Ricardo Cruz confessed to having taken part in robberies, having been payed a thousand pesos by a subject called El Chapulín, to drive the taxi and block in victims.

He also declared that the robbed vehicles were stored at the Iglesia Cristiana en Restauración Remanente Nuevo (Restored Christian Church of the New Harvest), Peluqueros 71, Colonia Morelos, where the pastor, 47 year old Daniel Castañeda Alvarez permitted them to keep the said automobiles.

In the building, eight automobiles were encountered, which had been reported to judicial authorities as having been stolen, according to official communications.

At this time, the Federal District Secretariat of Public Security has stated that the deliquent, the taxi driver and the pastor of the church have confessed, and been put at the disposition of the 16^th Investigative Agency Ministerio Público.

See,