The Ministry of Economy informed that smuggling seizures in Mexico total 500 million pesos in four operations.

The operations began on November 28 in Mexico City, followed by Hermosillo, Saltillo and, this Thursday, Ensenada.

In the latter, more than 3 million products with an approximate value of 320 million pesos were seized.

Smuggling seizures in Mexico

The Mexican government has informed that anti-smuggling operations will continue on a constant basis.

Mexico is one of the most open countries in the world to international trade, with 14 free trade agreements with more than 50 countries.

Along with smuggling, Mexico faces important challenges in informality and trade in counterfeit products. In the first case, 54% of the population works in the informal sector, which represents 24.8% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

A U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) report released in 2023 shows that Mexican authorities used to conduct IP enforcement raids in markets included in the Notorious Counterfeit and Piracy Markets Review such as La Pulga Rio, Mercado San Juan de Dios and Tepito, but this enforcement activity seems to have ceased in recent years. 

In addition, he adds, investigations and criminal prosecutions for trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy appear to be non-existent, and the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has not reported any intellectual property enforcement statistics for the past three years.

Marcelo Ebrard, Secretary of Economy, described the Ensenada operation (Operation Cleanup) as the largest ever against contraband.

In Ensenada, the operation covered 18,000 square meters of two shopping centers and involved 371 elements from different levels of government and 190 transportation units.

The seized products were imported from Taiwan, Indonesia, China, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Vietnam.