SURGE IN HIGHWAY ROBBERIES SOWS FEAR AMONG MEXICAN TRUCKERS

But Many Thefts Turn Out To Be Inside Jobs, Cops Say

Nestor Castellanos eased his 18-wheeler onto the freeway, carefully
checking the rearview mirror. Tailing him was a black minivan with two
pistol-packing guards. In the seat behind Castellanos perched a former riot
police officer, tear gas at the ready.

``We've got dangerous cargo,'' warned the driver.

Castellanos was beginning one of the most perilous journeys in late 20th
century Mexico: carrying bolts of fabric to a ladies' clothing factory in
the capital, about 200 miles northwest of this port.

In another sign of the collapse of order in Mexico, brigands are
terrorizing the highways in a way not seen since the 1910-17 revolution.

Assaults on trucks have soared from a few hundred to perhaps 40,000 a year.
Businesses are losing millions of dollars; some send armed guards to escort
truckers like Castellanos, much as Wells Fargo did with its stagecoaches in
the Old West.

``There are no authorities. There's a void. (The highways) have become no
man's land,'' said Luis Angel Carvallo, head of the truckers association in
Veracruz.

The highway banditry problem emerged seemingly out of nowhere.

Castellanos, 38, said his colleagues suddenly started being attacked four
or five years ago. One wound up in a wheelchair after bandits fired on his
cab. Recently, Castellanos' 18-year-old son was briefly kidnapped by
pirates who hijacked the truck in which he was riding.

``You don't know where they'll strike,'' said Castellanos, easing his rig
through palm-dotted hills, his eyes shifting to the mirror to check on the
security van trailing him.

``Some colleagues have been robbed in urban areas. Some at tollbooths,'' he
said. ``This has grown too fast.''

Alberto Villagran, damage analyst for the Mexican Insurance Association,
said reported truck robberies shot from 350 in 1993 to nearly 11,000 three
years later - and the figures do not include uninsured vehicles, which
constitute the majority of trucks on the road.

``People began to steal canned goods. We thought it was because they didn't
have money to buy the products,'' Villagran said. ``But with time, we
realized: No, it extended to all sorts of products, even raw materials.
These are made-to-order robberies.''

Authorities blame the underground economy. Traditionally, the government
had turned a blind eye to the informal street markets that absorbed
hundreds of thousands of unemployed Mexicans. Authorities even helped the
vendors in exchange for political support.

Now, authorities are realizing, many street merchants have grown into
commercial Frankensteins. If they need blue jeans, color TVs or detergent,
they simply turn to a gang of pirates to steal the goods for them.

``The gangs know the factories, the roads, how to do it. They have access
and no fear. They have heavy weaponry and stolen cars,'' said Leon Halkin,
vice president of the Mexican industrialists association.

The truck robbery business has become so organized and lucrative that
authorities are comparing it to narcotics trafficking.

``We're not talking about five or 10 people who decide in the morning to
commit a robbery,'' said Arturo Salinas, head of highway safety at the
ministry. ``We're talking about well-organized groups with impressive
wealth. We're talking about gangs with cars, radio communication, with
enough money to buy off truck drivers, warehouse owners and traffic
managers inside businesses.''

Consuelo Munoz, a Mexico City prosecutor who handles truck assaults, said
she began to realize the scope of the problem in February.

Her investigators, acting on a tip, went to check out a warehouse in
Jiutepec, about 50 miles south of the capital. Inside they discovered a
criminal emporium: 250 tons of Yamaha motorcycles, crystal, Tupperware,
bolts of fabric and other goods.

``All of it had been reported stolen,'' Munoz said.

Some robbers reject cargo they do not need. Last year, for example, a band
of thieves stopped, then freed, the driver of a truck carrying Nivea face
cream, said Cmdr. Fructuoso Gamez, the top investigator for vehicle-robbery
operations at the Mexico City prosecutor's ofThce.

``They said, `No, you're not the one we're looking for,''' said Gamez,
explaining that the bandits had expected to find premium cosmetics.
Authorities later discovered that the gang had a relative employed at the
company who was revealing the trucks' contents, Gamez said.

Working police and ex-cops fired in anti-corruption purges have been key
participants in the drug-trafficking, kidnapping and highway-robbery gangs
that have boomed in recent years, say Mexican and U.S. authorities. As the
iron-fisted political system has given way to democracy, the government has
lost control over its own security forces, critics say.

Perhaps the most startling development in the piracy boom is the
involvement of legitimate businesses and employees.

Authorities estimate, for example, that 30 percent or more of truck
hijackings involve the vehicle drivers themselves, who allow a prearranged
``robbery'' in exchange for a payoff.

Some drivers ``even have the telephones of representatives of the gangs in
different areas. They call them, inform them what kind of merchandise
they're carrying, and set a price,'' said Miguel Quintanilla, head of the
national Mexican truckers association.

Some bigger businesses are involved too. Mexico City police investigators
have discovered wholesalers who buy stolen goods and mix them with
legitimate groceries. There are hijackings of products that could be useful
only to industrial clients - things such as chemicals, newsprint, cheese
curd.