On July 12, 2025, a precious metal robbery that shocked the world occurred on a remote highway in Puebla, Mexico: 12 armed robbers accurately ambushed a mining company's transport convoy and robbed 33 tons of high-purity gold and silver ore (valued at US$234 million) in just 7 minutes. The robbers used modified off-road vehicles, signal jammers and pre-dug mountain roads to escape, highlighting their high professionalism.



This robbery reflects Mexico's severe security crisis - there were 26,000 highway robberies nationwide in the first half of 2025, an average of one every 50 minutes. The more far-reaching impact is on the global precious metals market: the incident caused silver futures prices to continue to rise, and the mining companies involved were forced to switch to sea transportation, causing transportation costs to soar by 40%.



The Mexican government urgently launched "Operation Thunder", deployed 3,000 National Guards and enabled drone monitoring, and signed a cross-border security agreement with the United States to track the flow of funds. This incident deeply reveals the infiltration of criminal groups into the precious metals supply chain and the transportation security challenges faced by resource-based countries.