A man suspected of robbing 92 Oxxo convenience stores in Oaxaca has been arrested, state security officials said on Saturday.

The man was attempting to rob a store on the Oaxaca-Mexico City highway 10 kilometers north of Oaxaca city, state Security Minister Dalia Baños said.

Workers at the store pressed a panic button which alerted state police, who were already investigating the suspect. The man was arrested by police, who found cards in his possession containing written threats against police which he’d previously left in the stores he robbed.

State Attorney General Arturo Peimbert Calvo said that of the 92 robberies, 55 were committed in Oaxaca city, in the city center and in the neighborhoods of Pueblo Nuevo and San Martín Mexicapam. In 2022, the suspect also carried out robberies in the municipalities of Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán and San Pablo Etla.

The Oxxo robberies began in 2021.

Peimbert added that the arrest represented a major blow to crime in the state.

Amid a rise in robberies of stores, state police in Oaxaca are carrying out patrols in convenience stores and shopping centers, and will install security checkpoints in areas with a high incidence of similar crimes, the newspaper El Sol de México reported.

With reports from Milenio and El Sol de México