military or police checkpoint

bpe wrote:DISCUSSIONS – ANSWERS – ANNOUNCEMENTS

a. Watch out ! 17 years of driving the Baja up and down many times each year and we have never had a problem until last week. Pulling an open box trailer & heading south we stopped at the military inspection point a few miles north of San Ignacio around 7 pm. We were asked to exit the SUV and were immediately separated with one of us on each side of the vehicle being questioned by an officer, showing our drivers license, never asking for our passports but were asked an unusual amount of nonsense details over and above the norm. Meanwhile 3 other military personnel were going through everything in the vehicle. They never removed a suitcase or box instead opening everything inside a very heavily packed vehicle (with lightly tinted windows). When it seemed like the officers questioning us could not think of any other questions, one of the 3 inspecting personnel would get something, a prescription out of our shave kits, aspirin, Benadryl even lightbulbs we had brought down and step way back from the vehicle, call us over with our back to the car an ask the most unimportant details or questions about the item. The practice was repeated multiple times by each of the three and as soon as one of us were not busy, one of them would instantly call us over to explain details about another item. This went on for 10 min with each person going through the car having some item and calling us away from the car to discuss it. Never once did they look in the trailer, nor did we see them look in the console or glove compartment. When we finally left my friend checked the small zippered binder that he had his cash, paperwork and passport in, glanced in and saw his US dollars as well as his pesos so he thought all was good. Later that night when we stopped at the motel, he discovered a large amount of money missing ($2,000 USD!) from his binder. We then started going through each suitcase, box and bag only to discover many items of value were missing. Yes, we should have pulled the cash out with us to begin with. Up to this point we had not even been asked to exit the vehicle at any of the stops. You can’t remove everything of value and keeping us both distracted and away from the vehicle we should have known something was not right. Beware drivers!! This was a blatant, sophisticated and choreographed robbery from five men two whom were officers with loaded assault rifles. Wow!

(2) note by the same author as above: I just had friends stop yesterday afternoon at the same checkpoint and she said she told them she could not exit the vehicle due to a leg/hip injury. The gave her some @?!@ about it but she ended up staying in the car while her husband was questioned at the rear of the vehicle. It’s just sad and I have always seen the marines as above this type stuff. I should have stayed on my toes and not dropped my guard. Won’t happen again.

(3) Sent to me today by a traveler. It is a photo but I could not copy to the BPE so here is typed copy. Also, this is what I referred to in yesterday’s BPE but I omitted the above article!

Dear Traveler, Do you think you received the right attention? If you notice or was object of a dishonest misonduct report immediately to the commander in chief of this military point. Call to 615-157-0610 and 615-157-1001 or report to: 40zm@mail.sedena.gob.mx. Have a good trip

(4) Unbeknownst to most travelers in Baja, you have the legal right to tell the soldiers at every stop that only one person at a time (una persona a la vez por favor) may search your car. I lock all doors, and open them one at a time and watch closely. I’ve been doing this for years, they always respect my request.