Vehicle Consumption, Theft and Smuggling in the Texas-Mexico Border, 1930–1960

Alberto Barrera-Enderle

doi:10.31389/jied.114

Abstract

My work studies how the construction of international highways and the rise in automobile consumption in northern Mexico during the 1930s and 1940s facilitated the illegal entry of thousands of stolen cars from the United States and encouraged the expansion of vehicle theft in the U.S. Southwest. This illicit business exposed the vulnerability of the political border between the United States and Mexico. Likewise, I also study the efforts of both governments (the United States and Mexico) to stop this illegal activity and the response of transnational criminal gangs to adapt to the increasing intervention of the State on the border.

Highlights

In January 1952, Mexican police officers diligently looked for members of a transnational vehicle gang established in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, one of the most important border cities
Dedicated to vehicle theft and smuggling, this gang extended its tentacles to both sides of the Texas-Mexico border
In Texas, American thieves stole cars so they could take them to Mexico through Nuevo Laredo

Summary

Roads and Vehicle Consumption in Mexico

The presence of vehicles in Mexico traces back to the dawn of the 20th century. In the first two decades, the few cars riding the dusty Mexican streets were accessible to a limited and privileged group of people. Encouraging vehicle culture and promoting ‘car tourism’ in Mexico were among its responsibilities For this purpose, they even produced a movie showing sections while driving through the Pan-American Highway to the cities of Monterrey and Tampico. If the first stage of the Pan-American Highway generated an economic, social, and touristic impact in Monterrey, the inauguration of the new section continuing this road to Mexico City had an extensive and significant impact on a large portion of the country. Better connected by new road infrastructure, southern United States and northern Mexico were consolidated as a cross-border social space (borderlands); the political border between both countries (border) was constantly infringed upon by all kinds of illegal exchanges, among others, the cars; this was mainly those that had been stolen in the United States, being able to leave the country without being detected (and without paying export duties), entering Mexico without paying taxes, to be legalized later, and sold

Trafficking of Stolen Cars to Mexico

Entry of Stolen Cars into Mexico