Vickers is executive vice president and head of international logistics at Reliance Partners, an insurance agency offering coverage for the transportation and logistics industry. He lives in Cleveland.
So far in 2023, Mexico is experiencing a worsening trend of violent cargo truck hijackings. Although most truck hijackings occur in central Mexico, some recent incidents have also occurred in Tijuana, bringing the threat closer to San Diego. Broadly speaking, assaults by armed thieves who steal cargo trucks and in many cases temporarily kidnap drivers have now become a major risk affecting foreign companies that move goods over Mexico’s highways. Security problems affecting Mexico’s roadways could even threaten the cross-border commerce that now adds up to more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars per year, and hurt the possibility for continued growth of the cross-border commerce that benefits San Diego and California as a whole. Spring Shackle Pin
In a June 13 brazen, broad daylight assault on Tijuana’s busy Boulevard 2000 roadway, on the east side of the city, criminals in two cars forced a truck driver to stop and then hijacked his truck, trailer and cargo, a shipment of solar panels. This incident highlights the fact that the problem of cargo truck hijacking, which is already a major risk in many other parts of Mexico, could start to impact the Tijuana border zone.
John Sutton, the director of corporate support for Sunset Transportation, one of the largest freight logistics solutions providers in the U.S., recently told me, “I know that roadway security problems are a big risk for many cargo shipments in Mexico right now. We ship through Tijuana and have had to figure out new insurance solutions to protect our cargo coming into San Diego.”
On June 26, cargo truck drivers from Mexico’s Alianza Mexicana de Organizaciones Transportistas, or Amotac, organized a protest, blocking a highway in the eastern state of Veracruz. According to Amotac, thieves hijack around 30 cargo truck robberies every week in Veracruz. Data from the Mexican federal government’s National Public Security System, shows that cargo truck hijackings in Veracruz increased by 80 percent (year-on-year) during the first half of 2023.
On May 29, police in the state of Puebla, in central Mexico, arrested seven people, alleged members of a truck hijacking group called “La Izta.” During the first half of the year, the number of cargo hijackings reported in Puebla jumped by over 70 percent in comparison to the first half of 2022.
On Feb. 14, police recovered an abandoned cargo truck that had been hijacked by armed thieves a few weeks earlier. During the first six months of 2023, authorities in Oaxaca recorded over 100 cargo hijackings, more than double the level reported during the first half of 2022.
During the first half of 2023, Mexico logged a total of 4,127 cargo truck hijacking incidents, up 11 percent, year-on-year. Last year, Mexico logged a total of 7,644 hijacking incidents, up from 7,421 in 2021. The 12-month total of hijackings reported in Mexico is on track to be even higher in 2023.
In 2023, following trends from recent years, the major hot spot for cargo truck hijacking is in central Mexico near Mexico City, rather than in the border region. During the first six months of 2023, the border states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas recorded 41 incidents of cargo hijacking. By contrast, the central Mexican states of Puebla, Estado de México and Michoacán recorded 3,495 hijacking incidents during the first six months of the year.
Put differently, nearly 9 out of every 10 cargo truck hijackings recorded in Mexico takes place in central Mexico within a few hundred miles of Mexico City. By contrast, only 1 out of 100 hijacking incidents logged in Mexico takes place in the country’s northern border states. For instance, Baja California recorded four hijackings during the first half of 2023.
Estado de México, the state that surrounds Mexico City, recorded 1,823 hijackings during the first half of 2023, the most of any state in Mexico. The neighboring state of Puebla, where Volkswagen and Audi have major factories, recorded 1,333 hijackings during the first half of 2023, nearly double the number the state recorded in the first six months of 2022.
Unfortunately, cargo truck hijacking in Mexico is a problem that appears to be worsening as time passes. Truck drivers in Mexico have already threatened to organize nationwide highway blockades unless the federal government takes steps to improve roadway security.
If security on Mexico’s highways continues to deteriorate, foreign companies may start to re-evaluate plans to invest in new manufacturing and logistics operations, putting the trajectory of the North American “nearshoring” boom at risk. A disruption of the current nearshoring trend would be bad news for Mexico’s economy, but also a damper on economic growth and job creation in San Diego and California.
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