Boring gangsters

The government, in its continuing quest to sell the its mano duro (hard hand) focus on anti-crime activity, may be slightly stretching the importance of some captures.

While kidnappers are no joke (and there are proposals to make kidnappers eligible for life imprisonment), and the fears generated by their violent methods are very real fears,  not all kidnappers seem to be as efficient when it comes to sowing terror as others.

Mexican authorities detained five alleged members of a kidnapping and extortion ring in the Mexico City region that was known for leaving the heads of pigs outside homes and businesses as a warning.

Latin American News-Dispatch

It looks as if this gang was trying to keep the overhead low… since you can get a pig’s head in any market, on any day, anywhere in the country, and they’re hardly intimidating.  Of course, maybe they threatened to bore their victims to death… while the published mug shots show the usual accourtrements of the criminal trade, I can’t muster up a lot of fear for a band of baddies led by a guy with the unimpressive moniker of “El Bla Bla”

Top, the not scary warnings (photo:  Gavin Quirke) and bottom, a stupid pig.