Mexico has been a major oil producer for more than a century, but its lack of refining capacity creates a quandary: The country must import much of its gasoline and diesel from the United States.
That’s a boom for U.S. refineries and related industries on both sides of the border, but U.S. and Mexican authorities say Mexican cartels have infiltrated the commerce, creating a black-market bonanza in smuggled fuel while leaving behind a trail of murder victims.
Last year, Mexican authorities seized millions of gallons of contraband fuel in scores of railroad cars and trucks near Mexico’s border with Texas.
“It’s false to say there is anything political here,” President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters in July. “This is an investigation with a legal basis and with evidence.”
The petroleum products are masked in manifests — labeled waste material, lubricants, residues and other items not subject to the high taxes that Mexico levies on imported fuel.
Or, alternatively, importers register arriving tankers as empty or near-empty. Seeing no evil are legions of crooked operators — customs inspectors, tax agents, military commanders, among other enablers.
An astounding one-third to one-quarter of all fuel sold in Mexico may be illicit, according estimates cited by the U.S. Treasury Department, which has sanctioned alleged Mexican fuel traffickers.
Photograph above; Soldiers and others stand in a line looking at confiscated fuel tanks
Full story Contraband fuel: Smuggling gasoline into Mexico earns cartels millions - Los Angeles Times
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