Cartels Are Using a Police Database to Track and Target Their Enemies

Mexican criminal organizations are allegedly tapping intelligence and security software, that is also used by the government, to locate and disappear rivals and hide their crimes, according to several sources within Mexican law enforcement and cartel members who spoke with VICE News.

The software, called Titan, has been used by several Mexican state governments, a source familiar with the program said. Its users can geolocate persons across the country in real time, access minute-to-minute location logs, and obtain official identification documents, amongst other private information, according to sources.

The different services available through Titan are being advertised on the black market for around 10,000 Mexican pesos (roughly $600) to 180,000 pesos ($9,000). They are being offered via Whatsapp groups managed by a “council” which includes both members of criminal organizations and Mexican state officials, according to one of the group’s admins speaking with VICE News. The council approves members of the list, as well as the provision of services.

Titan can be accessed in one of two ways— either directly through a Mexican official, mostly a state police commander, who takes the order of services requested and delivers on an agreed time, or by obtaining a log in.

“The platform is Mexican. It was developed here in Mexico but people from Israel worked on the backend,” a source inside a criminal organization told VICE News in a phone interview. We were unable to verify who, in fact, is behind the technology and its running.

Mexico’s government has in recent years also used the Israeli-made spyware Pegasus to spy on human rights activists and journalists, according to reports by the international media.

Titan uses a large Mexican database to obtain personal information on individuals and uses GPS technology to track a specific cell phone using either the phone number or the phone’s ID, according to the same source.

“The database is composed of other larger databases like the INE [Mexican voter id], Telcel, Telmex, credit bureaus, bank statements, phone apps logs, emails, amongst many others,” the source said.

VICE News reached out to Mexican state governments to confirm the use of Titan software, but no one responded to the request.

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