A cartel ran call centres selling Americans their own timeshares back
The Justice Department indicted a senior member of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion in September 2025 over an advance fee scheme, run from call centres in Mexico since about 2012, that charged Americans fees and taxes to sell or rent timeshares they owned. About 6,000 US victims reported roughly $350 million in losses between 2019 and 2024. The charges are allegations.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- United States, Mexico
- Outcome
- Charged — an allegation, not a conviction
- Reported loss
- $350.0 million
- Victims
- 6,000
- Schemes
- Timeshare exit and resale scams, Advance fee and 419 scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-06
The facts, as recorded
- The Justice Department announced the indictment on 22 September 2025 in the Eastern District of New York.
- Julio Cesar Montero Pinzon, known as "El Tarjetas", a senior CJNG member, and his half-sister Griselda Margarita Arredondo Pinzon were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
- Montero Pinzon was additionally charged with conspiracy to provide, and providing, material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
- CJNG has allegedly run the advance fee scheme against timeshare owners since approximately 2012.
- Victims were fraudulently induced to pay money up front to sell or rent their timeshares, under the pretext of fees and taxes, against false promises of money later.
- The scheme was operated out of various call centers in Mexico.
- Between approximately 2019 and 2024, approximately 6,000 US victims reported losses of approximately $350 million to timeshare fraud schemes in Mexico.
- In 2024 alone, nearly 900 complaints reported losses of over $50 million.
- The US State Department designated CJNG as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist on 20 February 2025.
- On 19 February 2026 the Treasury sanctioned a CJNG-led timeshare fraud network including the Kovay Gardens resort, five Mexican individuals and 17 Mexican companies.
- The call centres are staffed by telemarketers fluent in English and obtain victim information from complicit insiders at timeshare resorts.
- If convicted the defendants face up to 20 years on each count. An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Why this case matters
Timeshare fraud is normally filed under nuisance crime: a persistent caller, an advance fee, a few thousand dollars.
The Justice Department charged this one under the material support for terrorism statute.
That is because the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the State Department on 20 February 2025, and because the Treasury and the DOJ both describe timeshare fraud as one of its revenue streams — alongside drug trafficking and fuel theft. Money taken from an American retiree in a call about their holiday apartment is, on the government’s allegation, funding a designated terrorist organisation.
The mechanics
Owners of timeshares in Mexico are contacted by people claiming to be US-based brokers or legal representatives with a buyer or a tenant lined up. Money is required first — closing fees, taxes, transfer costs, government charges. The sale proceeds never arrive, and the requests continue.
Two details make it far more effective than a cold advance fee pitch.
The call centres are staffed by telemarketers fluent in English, working from Mexico. The victim hears exactly what they expect a US broker to sound like.
Victim information comes from complicit insiders at the timeshare resorts. The caller knows which property you own, what you paid, and when you bought it — because someone at the resort sold the list. That is not a cold call. It is a call that already knows the answer to every verification question a careful person would ask.
The scale
Approximately 6,000 US victims reporting approximately $350 million between 2019 and 2024. In 2024 alone, nearly 900 complaints and over $50 million.
That is an average of around $58,000 per reported victim — one of the highest figures anywhere on this site, and it reflects the re-victimisation pattern both agencies describe: once someone has paid one fee, the same operation returns for the next, sometimes for years.
The enforcement sequence
20 February 2025 — CJNG designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
22 September 2025 — Montero Pinzon and Arredondo Pinzon indicted in the Eastern District of New York.
19 February 2026 — Treasury sanctions a CJNG-led timeshare fraud network including the Kovay Gardens resort, five Mexican individuals and 17 Mexican companies.
The escalation from consumer-protection enforcement to terrorism charges and sanctions in twelve months is the clearest example on this site of what happens when a scam turns out to be a funding mechanism rather than a business.
The caveat
An indictment is merely an allegation. Both defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. Sanctions are an executive action, not a criminal conviction.
Sources
- Senior CJNG Member Indicted on Wire Fraud, Money Laundering, and Terrorism Charges for Operating Massive Timeshare Fraud Scheme. US Department of Justice. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The 22 September 2025 indictment, the defendants and their roles, the charges, the scheme running since about 2012, the advance fee mechanics, the Mexican call centres, the 6,000 victims and $350m for 2019–2024, the maximum penalties and the presumption of innocence.
- Treasury Targets Cartel-Linked Timeshare Resort Defrauding U.S. Citizens. US Department of the Treasury. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The 19 February 2026 sanctions on Kovay Gardens, five individuals and 17 companies, the FBI loss figures, the 2024 complaint and loss totals, the English-speaking call centres and the complicit resort insiders.