Mexican police recover stolen meds after gun battle

Police in Mexico have recovered a stolen tractor trailer carrying a shipment of pharmaceuticals hijacked by two cargo thieves while the vehicle was in Puebla.

Police in the town of Ixtacuixtla, Tlaxcala, said the suspects kidnapped the driver of the vehicle as it travelled along the Mexico-Puebla highway, stealing the truck and its load, according to the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Security (PCSC), citing information supplied by BSi.

PSCS – which recently became part of the Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) – said that an eyewitness notified police of the theft, prompting a pursuit of the vehicle utilizing the truck’s GPS signal.

The assailants led police to the neighbouring state of Tlaxcala, where the suspects and police exchanged gunfire, in which the kidnapped driver of the vehicle was injured. Authorities apprehended the suspects and recovered the stolen tractor trailer with its load near Ixtacuixtla. The injured driver has been transferred to hospital to be treated. 

- Meanwhile, Sensitech (formerly FreightWatch International) reports that the driver of a tanker truck loaded with 60,000 litres of gasoline prevented an attempted theft of his cargo unit by refusing to stop after cargo thieves shot several  times at his cargo unit, when he was driving on highway La Tinaja-Coatzacoalcos (MEX-145D) in Cosoleacaque, Veracruz.