In Mexico City, taxi `clones' used in assaults

Posted: Tuesday, February 06, 2001

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Finding a legitimate cab on the streets of the Western Hemisphere's largest city just got more difficult. Now even those that display seemingly legitimate credentials can be dangerous.

Savvy Mexico City residents have long known that street cabs not displaying permits and a driver's photo I.D. could be "pirate" cabs, taxis lacking legal permission and that sometimes are driven by thieves trolling for their next victims.

Now it turns out that many of those that appear to have the proper credentials are "cloned" cabs, using fake papers and license plates to attract fares, the Mexico City newspaper Reforma reported Monday.

Of nearly 104,000 street taxis, more than 20,000 are "cloned" taxis, while another 16,000 are "pirate" cabs that either lack documents and plates altogether, or use legal plates from a different car that don't match the registration number painted on their own, the Taxi Institute told the newspaper.

The majority of "pirate" and "cloned" cabs are not, in fact, occupied by thieves, but by honest drivers just trying to evade licensing regulations. Taxi permits are limited and can be time-consuming to obtain. In the past, they sometimes required political connections.

On the other hand, many assaults have occurred in completely legal taxis that have been stolen by criminals who then use them to prey on people.

One of the many unfortunate consequences of a dramatic peso plunge in 1995 was a sharp increase in crime, including kidnappings, robberies, and rapes committed by some of these cab drivers, often working together or in league with corrupt local authorities.

So far this year, there have been 82 reports of crimes committed aboard taxis, said Alvaro Arce Corcuera, an assistant attorney general in Mexico City.

There were nearly 3,000 crimes linked to taxis last year, 3,554 in 1999, and 3,523 in 1998, Reforma said.

The safest cab ride is with a "sitio," or authorized taxi stand. In addition to being secure, sitio cabs often are more comfortable, four-door vehicles - but they also charge up to twice as much as the street taxis do.

"Cloning" a taxi can be done in three ways, says Alfredo Rojas Haro, leader of the city's taxi union: Drivers obtain duplicated plates from corrupt city officials; make the plates themselves; or pretend plates from one of their cars have been stolen, while actually putting them on another vehicle that then is used to commit a crime.