I believe that social networks can be used as a very powerful tool to prevent kidnaps. If I had enough resources to develop an accurate software to analyze the social network of anyone, I would be able to identify if a person is linked to a networks of delinquent organizations and warn legitimate citizens about this.

 A couple of years ago the Mexican government was able to catch a group of delinquents called ‘Los Zodiaco” who were involved in more than 30 kidnaps  in Mexico City.

According to the Federal Police Department, this group was focusing on teenagers who studied in the most exclusive private schools of the city. They developed different ways to get information about their targets.

·       Infiltrate some member of the group to the serving staff of the house of the victim. (driver, gardener)

·    Infiltrate members of the group to the school with the goal of gain the friendship and trust of the victims. (students)

·       Collaborate with corrupt members of the police and financial institutions to identify how much money the target had and have to execute the plan.

In some cases, they took more than 3 years to develop their strategy without living any trace. None of the victims was rescued alive, and in more than 20 cases this group collected the ransom.

The main focus of this company would be to provide a very accurate information the networks of any individual is part of, How this individual is connected with other persons, how close is the relation, and how dangerous the networks could be. This services will be provided to corporations, schools and individuals. This information will be very helpful to prevent delinquent networks to penetrate the social network of ordinary people and reduce the risk of being extortion.