Mexico City authorities on Thursday shuttered a downtown mega-market specializing in Chinese goods known as “Mexico Mart.”
The city’s Institute of Administrative Verification (Invea) stated that the shopping plaza and individual stores were being investigated for selling contraband and failing to pay import fees.
The target of the raid was a 16-story building named Plaza Izazaga 89, located at the southern end of the capital’s Historic Center.
Plaza Izazaga 89 came under the spotlight last month after a June 16 front-page exposé in the newspaper Reforma entitled: “Chinese emporium thrives in informality.” The report claimed that the popular shopping plaza sold a large variety of products cheaply, without receipts or warranties, while employees were paid under the table.
Invea agents arrived at the plaza to carry out an inspection early on Thursday, accompanied by officials from the Interior Ministry as well as city officials from three agencies: Housing and Urban Development, Civil Protection and the Historic Center Authority.
As the market was opening, Invea agents sealed the building with official notices ordering it to remain closed. Some merchants had managed to close up their shops and prevent their goods from being confiscated, but the news site Infobae reported that 300 tons of merchandise had been seized.
Invea said that neither the individual shops nor the building owner had filed proper documentation reflecting the business being conducted at the site, as reported by the news organization Aristegui Noticias. Officials told reporters that the decision to close the building was taken for safety, security and health concerns.
This is not the first time Plaza Izazaga 89 has been shuttered. In March, Invea closed the mega-market while investigating accusations of contraband goods that had been smuggled into the country illegally, primarily from China and South Korea.
The newspaper La Jornada reported that Mexico City health inspectors had previously closed down several shops in the plaza for selling electronic cigarettes and accessories, all of which are banned in Mexico by presidential decree.
With reports from La Jornada, Aristegui Noticias and Infobae
