Robbery of the Century in Mexico: how the robbery of 20 gold and silver canisters unfolded without firing a shot

A team of 12 armed men they consumed therobbery of the century“in the western port of Manzanillo, western state of Colima, on the Pacific coast, the most important commercial center between Asia and Mexico

The thieves, who would have worked for at least 7 hours without being disturbed and without anyone noticing anything irregular, They stole 20 containers with gold, silver and zinc piecesas well as televisions, owned by a private company, the value of which has not yet been calculated.

According to unofficial versions, The robbery took place between the early morning and the morning of June 5th.but until this Sunday the information began to leak “in drops” on the episode.

How was the “robbery of the century” in Mexico

The owner of the unloading area, Alonso Mireles, pointed out that shortly after midnight on the 5th, a dozen heavily armed people arrived on the scene in the industrial area of ​​Jalipa, near the Manzanillo-Minatitlán route.

Without firing a single shot and without anyone getting hurtviolently subdued the guards and some workers, who were bound and gagged.

Depending on the version, this Sunday the authorities were barely informed and elements of the prosecution came to carry out an expert opinion and gather evidence to open an investigation.

So far the authorities of the Prosecutor’s Office of Colima and Manzanillo have maintained a hermetic silencefor which the progress of the investigations is not known, so it is not known whether there is a container search operation.

How Mexican thieves operated in Manzanillo

According to unofficial reports, theThe criminals were very knowledgeable about the containers carrying the goods precious and with the help of cranes and container trucks he was able to load and take valuables.

According to port workers, robberies in this area have become more frequent and the Ministry of the Navy, in charge of coordinating the loading and unloading activities, has set up a Control Group with representatives of security agencies such as the Sixth Naval and Regulatory Region.

This committee is committed to solving the “serious problem of container theft affecting carriers and businessmen in the region, “according to a bulletin from the port of Manzanillo.

According to specialists, it is a difficult task to trace the stolen mineral because it has no label and barcode, because they are “loose minerals”.

“It’s like trying to track down a kilo of sugar, someone takes it from your table and puts it on another table, it’s very complicated“, underlined Alberto Plascencia, logistics entrepreneur from Colima.

“This comes from someone who was looking for a certain type of cargo and who knew where it was stored,” a port operator said.

Security problems in the port of Manzanillo

Another witness to the robbery, quoted by the ANSA news agency, said that the security in the facilities of this place “is not reliable”. and “unfortunately the protocols we use are not sufficient to avoid this type of situation”.

Thefts have been on the rise for more than 6 yearsaccording to the Confederation of Industrial Chambers, which estimates that for every container in the hands of organized crime, companies lose 600 million pesos, about 30 million dollars.

Between 2016 and 2018, 59 complaints were filed for the theft of 103 containersonly 34 were recovered by the authorities

In the end, the state of Colima, one of the smallest in the country, is the national leader in various crimes: crimesfeminicides, robberies and intra-family violence, per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the civil organization Common Cause.

With information from ANSA