We used to get some 313 complaints per month, but last September there were 262, explained the head of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Minister’s Organized Crime Section, Klayber Sical, quoted by the local newspaper Prensa Libre.

Eighty percent of car and motorcycle thefts occur in zones 1, 7, 11 and 12 of the city, while the other 20 percent are recorded in the departments of Escuintla, Izabal and Petén, according to data from the MP.

There are three most common types of theft, among which dismantling vehicles to legally resell them later is considered the most profitable by criminals.

A second option is to dismantle vehicles and sell them separately as used spare parts. A third and most complex option is to take them out of the country under false documents.

Statistics from the National Civil Police (PNC) show that some two thousand cars are stolen each year. In 2023, five thousand motorbikes were stolen.

In 2024, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Organized Crime Section and the PNC have dismantled seven criminal structures involved in vehicle thefts.

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