Mexico Announces Crackdown on Fuel Theft and Smuggling
The Mexican government plans to order additional arrests of people—potentially including government officials—involved in fuel theft networks, said Alejandro Gertz Manero, the head of Mexico’s prosecutor’s office on 7 September, as part of the latest moves against organized criminal activity in the country.
A senior Mexican navy officer and more than a dozen other officials and business leaders were detained last week as part of an ongoing investigation into a massive fuel seizure in northern Mexico earlier this year, the Associated Press reported. In March, officials intercepted a ship carrying 2.6 million gallons of fuel in the Gulf port of Tampico. The fuel was allegedly being smuggled into the country.
Fuel theft—known as huachicol—is a major problem in Mexico, and it has cost the state-owned oil company Pemex $3.8 billion in five years. The fuel is often illegally tapped along pipelines and resold in Mexico, although in some cases fuel is obtained by bribing pipeline employees and government officials. Tapping pipelines has sometimes resulted in explosions or fires.
“In the last 15 years, this kind of theft became much more organized and sophisticated as organized criminal networks have increasingly initiated fuel thefts, according to [Gladys] McCormick, who is also a senior associate for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS),” Security Management reported in 2023. “With the ability to leverage massive funds and paramilitaries, criminal cartels can acquire information about pipeline paths, valves, and other infrastructure.”
Lately, smugglers have been bringing cheaper gasoline and diesel across the border with the United States by truck, train, or ship. The fuel might be mislabeled and falsely declared as industrial lubricant or other substances to avoid import taxes, according to the Financial Times.
Estimates from the last five years suggest that illegal diesel and gasoline make up 16 to 27 percent of Mexico’s annual fuel consumption, the Financial Times reported. In some states, contraband fuel accounts for upwards of 40 percent of annual consumption. Organized crime groups—including those connected to major drug cartels like Jalisco New Generation Cartel—exploit Mexican import policies, use bribes or violence to smuggle in fuel and flood the market with discounted gasoline.
Vast organised crime networks are illegally importing huge volumes of fuel — and piling pressure on Mexico's president. Here's how https://t.co/9oebEeTPpU pic.twitter.com/9kxqBRwMgc
— Financial Times (@FT) June 11, 2025
The most recent action comes days after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Mexico to discuss security issues—including fuel theft, which has been used as an alternative revenue source for Mexican cartels.
“In recent years, fuel theft in Mexico, including crude oil smuggling, has become the most significant non-drug illicit revenue source for the cartels and enables them to sustain their global criminal enterprises and drug trafficking operations into the United States,” according to an alert issued in May 2025 from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
“According to U.S. law enforcement authorities, the cartels are using complicit Mexican brokers in the oil and natural gas industry to smuggle and sell crude oil stolen from Mexico’s state-owned energy company, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), to complicit, small U.S.-based oil and natural gas companies (hereafter ‘U.S. importers’) operating near the U.S. southwest border,” the alert continued. “Through these schemes, the cartels are stealing billions of dollars of crude oil from Pemex, fueling rampant violence and corruption across Mexico, and undercutting legitimate oil and natural gas companies in the United States.”
The move continues efforts from Mexico to cooperate with U.S. officials to disrupt cartel-related activities, including with extraditions and prisoner transfers.
Earlier this year, the United States imposed economic sanctions on Mexican individuals and entities allegedly involved in a fuel theft network. The U.S. State Department told the Financial Times that they were committed to working with Mexico to disrupt the networks and advised U.S. companies to perform due diligence when selecting trade partners.
