• ILLEGAL: Criminals in Mexico have found new opportunities in the illicit trade of oxygen cylinders for personal use amid coronavirus pandemic shortages. Authorities are now reporting criminal incidents like cargo thefts, online frauds and hoarding of oxygen tanks.
• CARGO: Mexican police sources told REFORMA newspaper that they have reports of armed robberies of trucks transporting oxygen tanks in the central states of Tlaxcala, the State of Mexico and in the northwestern state of Sonora. Criminals have also stolen oxygen cylinders from hospitals.
• ESCORTS: “We have reports of theft cases. For this reason, we began an operation between the (oxygen selling) companies and the National Guard to provide a police escort for many of these shipments”, said Ricardo Sheffield, head of Mexico’s consumer protection agency (PROFECO).
• ONLINE: With some areas reporting hospitals near capacity in some areas of Mexico, families have resorted to the searching online for medical oxygen to bring home. Mexican authorities have taken down more than 100 online pages for deceiving consumers looking for oxygen cylinders.
