Public works paid for with taxes end up recycled by peso.
This phenomenon remained invisible for quite some time until journalist Andrés Solís, from Meganoticias TVC, documented together with his investigative colleagues from the same network, that the country is losing infrastructure at an alarming speed, while governments barely react.
The result is a silent crisis that deteriorates essential public services, generates fatal accidents, causes blackouts, and drains millions of dollars in resources. Faced with this scenario, Mexico needs to recognize the theft of urban equipment as a strategic crime that violates security, mobility, health and daily life.
What is stolen and why? The hidden value of urban infrastructure
Urban loot is diverse and profitable.
Cast iron strainers and drain manholes are resold by the ton to clandestine smelters; Copper extracted from electrical cables, traffic lights and telephone lines has a high value in international markets; water pipes and valves are sold as spare parts without sanitary control; LED luminaires and transformers are marketed as “recovered material”; Even batteries from road marking equipment end up in scrap yards.
Organized crime operates as an intermediary and buys from local crews that quickly dismantle infrastructure. The logic is simple: the criminal cost is low, the profit is immediate and the replacement is paid by the government. This type of theft increases in areas with poor surveillance, poor maintenance, and bureaucracies unable to inventory their own assets.
This negligence has fatal consequences. In November 2023, two women attending a concert at the Palacio de los Deportes, in Mexico City, fell into a drain without a cover. There was no signage, lighting or personnel to warn of the danger. Both died before receiving help. It was not an accident: it was the direct consequence of an infrastructure dismantled without control and an authority incapable of protecting basic public spaces.
Urgent prevention: technical, legal and operational solutions
Mitigating these crimes requires simultaneous measures:
a) Technical solutions: replacement of metal drains with reinforced polymers with no resale value; shielding of cables with chemical fluxes that render the copper useless upon extraction; QR code anchor devices for public inventories and parts tracking; use of sensors that alert about the opening or removal of critical infrastructure.
b) Legal solutions: Recycling centers should be required to register sellers, require invoices, and report suspicious purchases.
c) Operational solutions: updated digital inventories, permanent inspections at critical points, cameras in strategic areas and mixed security and maintenance brigades. It is not just about reacting when something disappears, but about anticipating it with technology and traceability, avoiding tragedies like the one at the Sports Palace.
Necessary sanctions: social harm must be prosecuted as a serious crime
Today, in many states, infrastructure theft is punished as if it were petty theft.
This view is absurd.
The theft of a record can cause the death of a person; the theft of traffic light cables generates multiple crashes; Removing water valves results in massive leaks and contamination.
Therefore, it should be classified as a serious crime for affecting essential services. Sanctions must be applied not only to those who steal, but also to those who buy, transport, melt, recycle and market materials without verification. In addition, recycling companies that purchase public infrastructure without verification must face million-dollar fines, closure, and criminal liability. Penalizing only the thief perpetuates the criminal cycle and leaves the economic actors who profit from the tragedy unpunished.
Unavoidable obligations: each level of government has specific functions
Municipalities must be responsible for real-time inventory, monitoring of critical points and immediate maintenance. State governments must coordinate prosecutors’ offices to pursue networks, not isolated thefts, in addition to regulating recycling centers and foundries. The federal government must criminalize the crime nationwide, coordinate asset intelligence to track buyers, and fund preventative technologies.
Today, the lack of coordination generates shared impunity: the municipality reports, the state police does not investigate, the federation does not prioritize and the recycler alleges “ignorance.” Meanwhile, citizens walk into deadly traps.
A comprehensive solution: traceability, co-responsibility and public technology
Mexico needs a national policy against the theft of urban infrastructure based on three pillars:
– Mandatory traceability of removable public goods.
– Criminal co-responsibility of each actor in the purchasing chain.
– Accessible technology for local governments.
