crime

Cargo hijackings on the rise

Industry officials said that the problem may be more serious than police are reporting.

They believe that hijackers are getting inside information so they can target valuable shipments.

Levi Cruz/la prensa

moving targets: Hijackers have targeted valuable shipments being trucked through the country.200811302

A rise in the number of truck hijackings by organized groups along the country’s highways and byways is becoming an increasingly costly problem for the transportation sector, according to the National Chamber of Cargo Carriers.

In the last two years, some nine cargo containers have been reported stolen, of which five were later recovered. Chamber members, however, indicate that actual figure may be higher as there are no official statistics on the phenomenon.

Chamber President Manuel Mora explained that the hijackers do their homework in assessing the value of the containers bound for Central America, and only seem to attack trucks carrying at least $80,000 in merchandise. He added that some robberies have resulted in losses of more than $300,000 in cargo.

Based on investigations conducted by the chamber, authorities believe that the criminal groups have agents working inside the cargo business, most likely in the shipyards and truck depots in the Canal.

Reports compiled by the Directorate of Judicial Investigation reveals a pattern in the hijackers’ modus operandi. Operatives usually position themselves in a low-traffic section of the Pan-American Highway, often staging a transit authority roadblock complete with phony uniformed officers and police paraphernalia.

When a truck stops, the armed hijackers leap into action, announcing their intention to steal the container. While one group transfers the containers to a waiting truck, the driver is bound, gagged and abandoned somewhere off the road.

The hijackers then take the stolen goods to a warehouse where the cargo is unloaded, and in many cases, according to reports, dispersed among arranged buyers. The stolen merchandise is then sold on the black market generally at half the retail price, said a police source.

Due to the group’s sophisticated techniques, Customs Director Vilma de Lucas said the hijackers’ movements are difficult to predict much less head off. For that reason, she explained, her office generally pursues a case only after being informed that a robbery has taken place.

Nilda Quijano, manager of the Colón Free Zone, mentioned that one of the factors contributing to the theft of goods leaving the area is the lack of security measures taken by retailers. They simply are not investing in improved security to ensure that the goods reach their intended destination, she added.

In less secure neighboring countries, in fact, cargo trucks crossing the country without armed guards are unheard of. Between El Salvador and Guatemala, for example, “every client pays for security for the truck until it arrives,” said chamber President Mora.

Otherwise the buyer runs the risk of losing as much as the transporter if hijackers make off with their merchandise.

In Panama, however, cargo carriers have opted to travel in groups of two or three trucks as a protective measure against assaults.

“We do this at least for the Panama-Santiago route, which poses the greatest danger,” said Mora.

The chamber member added that traveling in groups also helps prevent the unwitting transportation of drugs.

“We have to be careful because the trucks are loaded in the Free Zone,” he said. “But you don’t always know what’s inside the cargo because [drugs] may have been added by the one that checked the shipment.”