Between kilometer 92 and kilometer 58, heading towards Mexico City, the assailants use their vehicles as a barrier to cause traffic and “accidents”, and they even take advantage of GN operations to block the way for cargo escorts and then stop the truck with vehicles without license plates and warning lights.
“They force the truck drivers to pull over, they bring their own tractor-trailer, take the box, take it to some point in Hidalgo or Edomex, steal the products and abandon it,” custodians alerted REFORMA.
“The GN carries out strange operations that cause traffic on the highway, but they do not report the robberies, they even come to see the crashes caused by the assailants, but instead of flagging, they just look and leave, we see an involvement of the authorities in the robberies,” added one of the private agents.
On October 25, the crime used about seven cars to steal 5 million pesos in high-tech products.
Videos to which REFORMA had access show how at least seven vehicles have stalked and followed a truck since the unit with a car escort left the Arco Norte coming from Morelia, to join the Mexico-Querétaro highway.
In the recordings, for about 30 kilometers, a Jetta, a Beetle, a Voyager, a white Pick-Up without license plates and strobes, a Minicooper, a Vento and a Tiguan appear, which are identified by the guards themselves as suspicious.
The truck and private agents face at least two settlements. One due to a damaged vehicle and another due to an unusual NG operation, which only causes a bottleneck.
“When passing that point of the GN, Voyager passed the guards and shot at them, they did not stop and passed Voyager, but there the Beetle passed them and crossed them to cause a crash; while the truck with the cargo left followed by the White Pick-Up with strobes and a tractor-trailer without a box. After that no one passed because the GN closed all circulation behind while the theft was in process,” analyzed a private security chief.
“The collision of the Beetle with the guards was in the high-speed lane, near the supposed GN operation that did not intervene; 20 minutes later a GN patrol arrived, they got out to see the collision, but instead of giving the flag, the agents left,” he added.
The guards were kidnapped by the Voyager subjects, who beat the private security elements, tied their hands, stripped them naked and abandoned them in Tepotzotlán.
The trailer, now unloaded, appeared abandoned in San José del Puente, Edomex, on the Emisor Poniente.
Assaults on transporters in the country increased by 9.4 percent this year, 86 percent of them committed with violence, according to official figures.
Between January and September, 7,028 transportation robberies were reported, of which 6,030 were perpetrated with violence, establishes the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP).
In the same period of 2022, 6,420 cases were registered, of which 5,580 were committed with violence.
The State of Mexico leads the list of robberies against carriers with 3,163 assaults this year, of which 2,730 have been reported with violence.
In addition, security companies affirm – based on GPS tracking – that, in that period, thefts from cargo transportation to their road units increased by 35 percent compared to the same period last year.
“The Arco Norte highway (MEX-M40D) that runs through Hidalgo, State of Mexico, Tlaxcala and Puebla, was one of the five roads with the highest rate of robberies. 27% of the events occurred in the sections that belong to Hidalgo (28 %), Tlaxcala (22%) and Puebla (14%)”, exemplified Ricardo Bustamante, president of the Mexican Association of Private Security Companies and Satellite Industry A.C.
“Only during the second quarter of the current year, 94 percent of the 5,178 robberies were concentrated in 10 entities, among which the State of Mexico and Puebla stand out,” he warned.
The most dangerous sections, he added, are on highways 45 Querétaro-Irapuato, 57D Northeast Bypass of Querétaro, 57 San Juan del Río-Querétaro section, 150D and the Mexico-Puebla-Veracruz corridor.
Food and beverages, construction and industrial, technology, medicines and groceries are the most stolen products.
“The central and western regions of the national territory concentrated most of the recorded events (88%), and when dividing the national territory into quadrants, it is identified that 80% of the events were recorded in the fourth quadrant (C4).
The Western region, which includes: Aguascalientes, Colima, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit, Querétaro and Zacatecas, presented a higher incidence of robberies in the second half of the semester. Michoacán and Querétaro are also on the rise,” he said.
Regarding the growth of crime rates, he warned that Puebla, Michoacán, Querétaro and Hidalgo registered an increase of two percentage points in the second quarter.
“Without a doubt, it is necessary to reinforce measures through physical and electronic tools in cargo trucks, but mainly, it is recommended to integrate a dedicated monitoring service with the added value of guaranteed recovery,” considered the expert.
Source: Reforma
