The profile of cargo theft in Brazil is changing at the beginning of 2026. The robberies are focused on high-value cargo and the loads of medications were preferred. His and Gangs are operating more strongly in urban areasin the so-called last mile of the route. THE Rio de Janeiro remains ahead as loss leader with the robberies.
The data is from the first quarter of 2026 and is part of the report “Cargo Routing Tech Report”prepared by nstech, a supply chain software company in Latin America. The study is based on information collected by risk managers BRK, Buonny and Opentech, which are part of the company’s ecosystem.
O theft of medicines jumped from 1.7% in the first quarter of 2025 to 22.3% in 2026indicating migration of gangs to targets with greater liquidity.
“In view of the data, it is clear that the focus of criminals is no longer on volume but on the value of the cargo and its liquidity. This migration has direct implications for logistics security in Brazil,” analyzes Cristiano Tanganelli, VP of market intelligence at nstech.
Urban risk is in the last mile. Occurrences in urban areas more than doubled, jumping from 18.9% to 38.5% of the country’s total losses. “The risk approaches the last mile, infiltrates urban operations and requires a response increasingly based on intelligence, data integration, logistical collaboration and adaptability”, adds Tanganelli.
The report points out a profound transformation that was already being seen in recent months: risk is no longer just concentrated and predictable to become dynamic, selective and focused on the value and liquidity of the cargo.
The state of Rio de Janeiro continues to lead the ranking of losses and accounts for 44% of the national loss. In the first quarter of last year the percentage was 16.4%.
The survey also shows that crime began to operate with a portfolio logic focused on value: 40.4% of losses in the quarter involved cargo valued at more than R$1 million, with almost half of these losses (44.4%) in the pharmaceutical sector.
Breakbulk cargo remains the basis of risk and leads the general ranking with 36.6%, growing 8.2% compared to 1Q25.
Cigarette theft plummeted from 34.1% to just 3.7%, when comparing the first quarter of 2025 and 2026.
New crime calendar
The crime calendar has also changed. Thursday took the lead, accounting for 30% of the losses, followed by Mondays (20.7%) and Tuesdays (16.5%). Sunday, which represented more than 10% in previous years, fell to 1.4%.
When analyzing timetables, the morning (28.6%) and early morning (28%) were the most critical periods, with the second showing an increase in relation to the first quarter of 2025 (when it had only 12.4%), suggesting a tactic of exploring windows with less supervision.
Among highways, BR-101 (21.6%) and BR-116 (13%) returned to the radar with force and led the national road losses.
