Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Short on cash? Taking over a toll plaza can be a lucrative solution

Hijacking toll plazas has become an important source of income for many people in Mexico. Last year alone the country saw losses of revenue totaling 3 billion pesos (US $127.4 million), according to Capufe, the federal highways and bridges agency.

And the coronavirus pandemic has only made things worse, says Capufe director Marco Antonio Frías, as the country’s economic crisis worsens.

Circus performers, railway workers, street vendors and bus drivers are among the groups of people who commandeer toll plazas for personal gain, he says. In most cases, motorists are charged a discounted toll.

The problem is particularly pronounced in Nayarit, where toll thieves have taken some 2 billion (US $85 million) pesos this year alone.

The groups gain control of the toll plazas by attacking personnel with chains, sticks and stones, Frías told the news agency Reforma.

“It is a kind of organized crime. There are different groups but at some point they have a connection between them, they share strategies and take control of the toll booths in a staggered manner,” Frías said. Some illegal toll-takers cite social causes as the reason behind their theft, and motorists who do not cooperate have been beaten.

The phenomenon is spreading across the country, with incidents reported in the México valley, Michoacán, Nayarit, Baja California, Sonora and Jalisco.  

Some groups, such as Pacific Civil Resistance, organize the taking of toll booths via social media. Frías urged federal authorities to act, and said that the groups and leaders are well known, it’s simply a matter of issuing warrants for their arrest.

“Ultimately there is a perverse incentive that is precisely that of impunity,” he said

Source: Reforma (sp)
Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
Three schoolboys drinking sugared drinks

More than one-third of Mexico’s schoolchildren are overweight or obese

1
According to an ongoing government study, the states with the highest rates of overweight in children are Campeche (56%), Quintana Roo (52%) and Tabasco (51%).

Federal prosecutor fatally attacked in Reynosa

0
Ernesto Cuitláhuac Vázquez Reyna came under attack on Monday evening while traveling alone in a black Cadillac SUV on the Miguel Hidalgo Boulevard in Reynosa.
ABC Daycare protest

Mexico asks US to extradite former daycare owner convicted of manslaughter

2
The co-owner of ABC Daycare Center, where a fire in 2009 claimed the lives of 49 young children and babies, was a fugitive in the United States until her recent arrest in Arizona.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity