(Kitco News) - In a world filled with uncertainty, gold and silver remain valuable targets for organized crime, with Mexican authorities reporting a brazen theft of significant amounts of the precious metals.
According to media reports, on June 5, a group of thieves broke into a freight storage area at the Pacific coast seaport of Manzanillo, Mexico. They took 20 freight containers loaded with partly refined gold and silver ore, air conditioning units and television sets.
The value of the gold and silver or the amount of ore taken has not been disclosed.
Media reports said that a group of 10 to 15 men subdued security and storage employees and then searched the facility for hours, looking for the containers. It took up to 10 hours to locate and remove all 20 containers.
The Mexican Daily News described it as the biggest and most audacious heist in the state.
State officials also noted that this was an unpreceded robbery. Similar port-area thefts involve only one or two containers, a government spokesperson said.
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The port in Manzanillo is Mexico 's busiest, handling a record 3.37 million shipping containers in 2021. The army, navy and National Guard have been searching for 40-foot containers but haven 't managed to locate them. No arrests have also been made.
The Mexican navy provides security for the port; however, the robbery occurred on private property.
