Michoacán, Mexico City, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Jalisco They concentrate half of the robberies to banks registered this year in the country, according to information from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP).
The list is headed by Michoacán, with 20 robberies; followed by the capital of the country, with 12; Oaxaca and Veracruz, with 11 thefts for each state; and Jalisco, with 10 cases.
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From January to November 2023, according to data from the SESNSP126 were reported robberies from banking institutions throughout the national territory, 23 percent less compared to the same period in 2022.
Last Wednesday, August 23, Estela went to the branch of CIBancolocated in the World Trade CenterNaples colony, in order to pay a infringement traffic. The person before her at the counter service was a thief who, through an intimidating note given to one of the employees, stole almost 100 thousand pesos in less than five minutes.
“I entered the bank, there were about three or four people waiting to go to the window, and suddenly we saw that police began to arrive from all sides; They told us that they had just steal the bank, that no one moved and that he had been the person who was right before me, he was a man of about 30 years old who I even greeted. It really was something very fast and fortunately very calm, thank God no one was hurt.
“I noticed that the subject was putting wads of money in a small backpack, but I thought it was normal, because he even left the room very calmly.” branch. The subject never seemed aggressive or nervous; “It was very fast,” the 54-year-old woman told El Sol de México.
Estela was lucky that the thief acted calmly because, according to figures from the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC)headed by Rosa Icela Rodríguez, 65 percent of the bank robberies committed this year were with violence.
Alejandra Sánchez, former head of a HSBC branchwitnessed four robberies during his time on the bench.
The most significant, he said, occurred prior to Easter holidayswhen two subjects broke the glass doors with sledgehammers, entered the facilities with long weapons and took a million and a half pesos from the ATM that they had recently provided.
“They targeted all my teammates and me and asked us to get down on the ground. We throw ourselves and they stole everything that was in the cassette deck, back then it was just a small ATM. In the process they were shouting rude words and threats at us, after a while we stopped hearing noise, a colleague turned around and realized that no one was there anymore. The protocol was then followed. In front of our branch there was a police module and no one noticed,” recalled Sánchez, who despite the fear he felt, said, he would return to work in a bank.
He modus operandi Intimidating employees is still, according to security expert David Saucedo, the most common way to bank robberyespecially in large metropolises, such as CdMx, where the location of most branches allows the immediate mobilization of security servicesso acting discreetly is key for thieves.
“The most common thing is that the thief Enter like any customer and ask for the money using notes. cashier or cashier, assuring him that he comes armed and even that more people are waiting for him outside who are willing to enter, if he does not hand over the money. The employeesFor their part, they are instructed not to resist the assault or to try to notify the security personnel, who are mostly private companies that do not have the necessary equipment to effectively confront the attackers. criminals”.
The expert attributed the decrease in bank robberies to the implementation of security cameras; prevent the entry of clients with caps, glasses or hats with which they cannot be recognized, when employee monitoring so that they are not linked to thieves and to increase patrols, among other measures.
In an interview with this newspaper and given the increase in people using the Internet, he highlighted that the majority of banking institutions have focused more on the prevention of cybercrimes, such as identity theft or card cloning, than on protecting the ATMs or branches.
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According to information from the SESNSP, 14 states of the Republic did not have bank robberies this year, three more than in 2022. Aguascalientes, Baja California, Campeche, Chiapas, Durango, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Querétaro, Sonora and Tlaxcala were some entities that were saved from this type of theft.
Furthermore, a total of 69 attempts to bank robberies were avoided throughout the country, through the intelligence work.
Among the banking institutions hardest hit by the delinquency highlights the Banco del Bienestar, a financial entity owned by the Government of Mexico, which from March 2022 to May of this year reported 112 thefts, reaching 194 since it opened its doors in July 2019. The data was no longer known seven years ago. months, when he classified the information about assaults as reserved.