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Mexican trains, trucks hijacked in new crime wave
Thu May 28, 2009 3:43pm EDT
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By Mica Rosenberg
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - With Mexican law enforcement tied up attacking drug cartels, free-lance crime gangs have become more daring and sophisticated, hijacking trucks and trains and stealing massive loads of steel, coffee and beans.
These gangsters are armed not only with guns but heavy machinery to unload industrial materials and bulk agricultural goods, deftly passing them off to the black market.
Mexico's third largest steel producer, Altos Hornos de Mexico, or AHMSA, has been victim of nearly 40 robberies since January 2008, mostly along one stretch of deserted road in northern Mexico between the cities of Monterrey and Monclova.
"This wasn't happening before," AHMSA spokesman Francisco Orduna said.
"To unload a 30-tonne roll of steel is complicated," he said. "Not just anyone can do that and to find someone who will buy that amount is not that easy either. You have to be really well organized."
Mexico's steel chamber said robberies skyrocketed by 250 percent last year, as 12,500 tons were carted off by thieves, sometimes truck and all. Losses totaled 150 million pesos ($11 million) in 2008 and have continued as a fast clip this year.
The robberies are raising the cost of doing business in Mexico as companies hire guards, expensive security consultants and specialized satellite positioning devices to track cargo.
The United States, worried about violence spilling over the border, has pledged millions of dollars to help Mexico attack drug traffickers and some 2,250 people have been killed this year alone as cartels fight the government and each other.
Analysts say the thefts could come from groups splintering off from drug gangs in the chaos.
"The internecine warfare has caused some of the smaller groups to branch off into other lucrative organized crime activities. It's a kind of diversification," University of Miami drug expert Bruce Bagley said.
"Stealing cargo, collecting protection money, kidnapping are all part and parcel. Once you get a taste for this life, it is hard to go back," he said.
TRAIN HEISTS, FARM EXTORTIONS
Using intelligence gathered from employees either intimidated or paid off to leak transport routes, the well-connected groups can hijack a truck making a pit stop, empty out the cargo and dump the driver on an abandoned road.
Gerardo Bortoni, who heads an association of truck drivers in Monclova, said the thieves hand products over to corrupt businessman while authorities turn the other way.
"They are stealing everything, coffee, cacao, pistachios. Before it was just sporadic now its very common. We're afraid to haul a lot of products," he said. Continued...
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Mexican trains, trucks hijacked in new crime wave
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