A group of gunmen on 31 October staged a sophisticated hijacking of six open-top semi-trailers transporting raw minerals from the Penasquito mine in the municipality of Mazapil in the central state of Zacatecas.
Over 200 tons of raw gold, silver, zinc and copper were stolen.
The open-pit mine complex, the second largest in Mexico, is operated by Colorado-based Newmont Corporation.
The semi-trailers were transporting the raw materials on the Zacatecas-Saltillo highway (Federal Highway 54) when they were stopped at 1700 by heavily armed assailants.
The gunmen temporarily restrained the six truck drivers, as well as two private security guards assigned to escort the convoy.
One security escort had been leading the convoy in an advance vehicle while the other followed at the rear.
The gunmen reportedly subdued the escort drivers first.
The assailants uncoupled the gondola-style trailers before hooking them up to other tractor units brought in by the gang.
The assailants then drove off, abandoning the truck drivers and their security escorts on the side of the highway. None of the victims was reported harmed.
The coupling of the six trailers to tractor units brought in by the hijackers was seemingly done to sidestep GPS tracking devices installed in the cabins of the company tractor units.
The trucks were presumably bound for the Port of Manzanillo in the central Pacific coast state of Colima.
The army, National Guard and police units launched a widescale search for the stolen trailers in Zacatecas following the report of the hijackings.
The careful planning and execution of the hijackings suggests the involvement of a cartel. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Spanish abbr: CJNG), the Sinaloa Cartel and factions of the Gulf Cartel all operate in Zacatecas.
Officials in April reported that nearly 14 million truck hijackings took place in 2023, a 4.6 percent increase over 2022.
Cartels increasingly are involved; assailants are heavily armed and incidents increasingly involve violence.
Six cartels are involved in hijackings: the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Spanish abbr: CJNG), the Sinaloa Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, the Cartel of the Northeast (Spanish abbr: CDN), the Union Tepito and the Cartel de Tlaluac.
Cargo hijacking is a problem throughout the country. Raw materials are stolen along with finished products like food, clothing, medicines and electronics that are easily sold on the black market.
Proceeds are estimated at $4 billion per year.
While the vast majority of hijackings take place between 2100 and 0500, there has been an increase in the number of incidents in broad daylight.
The following roads suffer the greatest number of hijackings: Mexico-Queretaro, Mexico-Tulancingo, Mexico-Texcoco; Mexico-Puebla, Celaya-Salamanca, Puebla-Veracruz, and the Arco Norte, which crosses Puebla, Tlaxcala, Hidalgo and the State of Mexico.
The Puebla-Veracruz highway is especially dangerous in the townships of San Mantin Texmelucan, San Miguel Xoxtla, Tiahuapan, Esperanza and San Matias Tlalancaleca.
Other dangerous roadways include Urracas-Matamoros in Reynosa, Queretaro-Irapuato, Mexico-Toluca Matehuala-Monterrey, Mexico-Cuernavaca and Mexico-Tuxpan.
Deliveries within Mexico City also are high-risk, with smaller delivery vehicles serving local stores often targeted.
Companies shipping goods on higher-risk routes increasingly employ armed escorts in advance- or follow-cars. But even this does not ensure safety.
On 3 May 2023, a truck with a load of high-value cellular telephones was intercepted shortly after departing the customs area of the Mexico City airport by armed assailants in three vehicles. The assailants opened fire at a car carrying armed security escorts, killing one before making off with the truck and its cargo. The other guard and the truck driver survived.
E-commerce giant Amazon has reported its implementation of a successful anti-hijacking strategy in the Mexico City metropolitan area, where it has two distribution centers. The strategy makes liberal use of convoys and escort vehicles with armed guards. Amazon also shares intelligence with other shippers and has stepped up cooperation with companies that also have suffered cargo losses.
Before the new strategy was implemented, Amazon suffered at least one hijacking a week, with an average loss of $240,000.
The strategy is apt to be more effective in Mexico City, as assailants are not apt to be as heavily armed as they are on rural roadways and because of the greater police presence.
In addition to robberies, trucking companies experience an extremely high number of extortions. Taxes are charged for trucks to pass through areas controlled by criminals. In addition, Mexican police demand bribes from truck drivers using major highways.
This service strongly endorses the Amazon strategy, though it is apt to be most effective in and around Mexico City, where there are sufficient police assets in place to respond to incidents. In other parts of the country, gangs operate in larger numbers and are more heavily armed.
Shipping companies should be thoroughly investigated, with special attention to the processes they use to vet their drivers.
Private security companies contracted to escort shipments should be thoroughly vetted as well.
Shipping companies should have two-way communication with drivers.
To the degree possible, trucks should travel high-risk roads only during daylight hours.
