MEXICO CITY –
Thieves stormed a cargo storage area on the Pacific coast of Manzanillo and stole 20 cargo containers loaded with partially refined gold and silver ore and TVs, the Mexican Federation of Employers said Monday.
Jose Medina Mora, president of the federation, said the large-scale robbery was a sign of rising crime in Mexico.
“There is a growing lack of security and this is a sign of what is happening in the country and requires the authorities to take action,” Medina Mora said.
The state of Colima, where Manzanillo is, has not officially commented on the June 5 robbery.
But Horacio Duarte, head of Mexico’s customs service, confirmed the robbery and said organized crime was involved.
“It was a very serious operation of organized crime,” Duarte said.
According to local press reports, about 10 armed thieves broke into a private control station near the port, subdued officers and then took several hours to search for the containers they wanted.
The thieves then apparently hooked up the containers to the trucks and moved with them. No traces of the containers or their contents have been noticed since.
Cargo theft is a serious problem in Mexico, but it usually involves thieves who hijack trucks one at a time on highways rather than 20 cargo containers.
Products such as TVs usually sell out quickly on the country’s vast black markets, but it was unclear where thieves could sell tons of partially processed gold or silver ore. Each refiner will ask where he comes from.
Prosecutors and police in Colima had a more pressing problem as residents blocked roads in protest of abductions and killings of local people. So far this month, two police officers have been shot dead in the state, which is dominated by the Jalisco drug cartel.
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