Attacks on people who have just withdrawn large sums of cash from banks, known in Spanish as “robos conejeros,” are on course for a record total in 2018.
Between January and July, victims filed 459 reports of assaults with authorities. The 2017 total of 611 was the highest ever recorded, and the fifth consecutive year with higher numbers.
In 2010, authorities received 68 denuncias (complaints) for robos conejeros; and just 42 in 2011.
Typically, bank customers who have just withdrawn significant sums of cash are targeted and assaulted by gun-wielding delinquents outside a branch, often while getting into their vehicles. On other occasions they are followed and assaulted at a more remote distance. These criminals mostly work in pairs and use motorcycles in order to flee the scene rapidly.
In some incidents, victims who refused to part with their cash have been shot – fatally in at least one case.
It is commonly accepted that many of the targets are identified with the collusion of bank employees. Also, criminals hang around inside branches, pretending to be clients but on the lookout for potential targets.
This week, the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) released information on the names of branches whose customers have been most vulnerable to these quick-fire assaults since 2011.
Heading the list are BBVA Bancomer and Banorte with 494 and 428 incidents respectively. In third place is Santander with 326, fourth Banamex with 276 and fifth HSBC with 160.