At least ten heavily armed robbers robbed at least twenty containers of gold and silver from a private company near the port of the Mexican city of Manzanillo. They overpowered the personnel present and selected the containers to loot.

The robbers were not noticed on the remote site and took eight to ten hours to empty containers using cranes, among other things. Mexican media speak of “the theft of the century”.

The authorities are not releasing much about the investigation. The robbery has only now been announced and was on Pentecost. In addition to gold and silver, the containers also contained zinc and expensive electronic equipment. The robbery also shocked the capital Mexico City, 500 kilometres to the east.

The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office has turned to the matter, Mexican media reported on Tuesday. The head of the national customs service called the robbery “a major operation of organized crime”. A police spokesman in the stricken state of Colima has called the robbery “unprecedented in scale”.

But the estimated value of the loot has not been disclosed. The gang that committed the crime would have been well aware of the contents of the containers. The private company next to Manzanillo’s guarded harbour area would have been poorly secured.