So far this year, state investigators have identified 13 gangs (colloquially referred to as conejeros, or hunters) dedicated to robbing bank customers who have just withdrawn significant amounts of cash.
Between January and August, there were 470 official reports of bank customer assaults in Jalisco, compared with 558 in 2018. This decrease is largely due to the “dismantling” of eight gangs and the arrest of 36 people this year, according to Ernesto Hernandez, director of the Bank Theft Investigation unit of the Jalisco State Police (FGE).
Although the gangs prefer to target clients withdrawing large sums – the biggest single haul in 2018 was 560,000 pesos – they won’t pass up an opportunity to snatch a smaller amount. Last month, a humble pensioner was assaulted by a gang, who followed her all the way to her home after she withdrew 10,000 pesos from a Bancomer branch on Avenida Patria in Colonia La Estancia in Zapopan. The armed gunmen barged their way into her modest home and forced her to hand over the cash.
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