HomeNewsBrief'Car Theft an $11 Billion Business in Mexico'
BRIEF

'Car Theft an $11 Billion Business in Mexico'

MEXICO / 18 DEC 2012 BY ELYSSA PACHICO EN

Mexico's motor vehicle protection association says that car theft is the second most profitable criminal business in Mexico, after drug trafficking. While it certainly is a major problem, the association may be exaggerating. 

The vice president of the vehicle protection association, known its Spanish acronym ANERPV, said car theft pulls in $11 billion worth of profits per year for criminal groups, Animal Politico reports

This is compared to a range of estimates for the profits from Mexico's drug trafficking trade. As noted in a 2012 US Congressional Research Service report, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) estimates that the industry is worth some $22 billion, while the Department of Homeland Security puts the number between $19 billion and $29 billion. Another oft-cited figure by the Rand Corporation states that the amount of annual drug trafficking revenue flowing from the US back to Mexico is no more than $6.6 billion. 

Mexico's national insurance association counts a total of 90,000 vehicle thefts in 2012, a little more than half of which have been recovered. This is a slight increase from last year, when some 85,510 vehicles were reported stolen. According to ANERPV, 60 percent of the vehicles stolen in 2012 were cargo trucks and the rest were automobiles. 

According to ANERPV's numbers, Mexico is the state most affected by car theft, followed by Nuevo Leon and Mexico City. As the newspaper La Jornada reports, city officials in Mexico City complain they have fallen victim to over 500 vehicle robberies so far this year, few of which have been recovered.

InSight Crime Analysis

It is in the interests of ANERPV, an association of car protection businesses, to cast the problem of vehicle theft in the most dire light. Just as it is difficult to come up with a reliable estimate on the total worth of Mexico's illicit drug trade to the United States, ANERPV's $11 billion statistic should also be taken with a grain of salt. 

Another issue is that not all reported car thefts may be actual robberies. Some are fraudulently reported as stolen in order to pursue an insurance claim, or else are traded in to "chop shops" where they are disassembled and sold for individual parts. In the US, for example, some 10 percent of all reported car thefts are thought to be fraudulent. In Nuevo Leon, the state government was recently accused of tolerating a mass license plate theft ring, one indication of the kind of official corruption that frequently co-exists with the car theft business in Mexico. 

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 11 JUN 2021

Over seven million rounds of ammunition were stolen by an unknown armed group in central Mexico this week, a record-breaking…

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 12 OCT 2021

Arms trafficking in Mexico has turned to digital mediums that offer both broad visibility and anonymity to an ever-increasing flow…

CONTRABAND / 18 MAY 2022

Ranchers from Mexico's eastern state of Veracruz know a way to buy cheap cattle: Drive to a remote part of…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…