Vice Admiral Manuel Roberto Farías Laguna, accused along with his brother of leading a multimillion-dollar fuel smuggling network, has asked the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, to intervene in his case. In a letter to the president, which EL PAÍS obtained this Wednesday, the naval officer, facing charges of organized crime and hydrocarbon-related offenses, stated that the Secretariat of the Navy (Semar) has denied his defense access to “information that is appropriate to prove” his innocence. This is the fourth time the detainee has sent correspondence to the president.
Farías Laguna is among the 14 people arrested in September 2025 in the most decisive blow against corruption by the Sheinbaum government. At the same time, the scheme, which benefited its members with at least 3 billion pesos (about 150 million dollars), became the biggest political scandal since Morena came to power in 2018. It also shattered the narrative of the incorruptibility of the armed forces, one of the rhetorical pillars of the ruling party.
The crime, known in Mexico as fiscal huachicol, involves importing refined fuel and passing it off as another tax-exempt product for fuels. The scandal broke after authorities discovered a ship at the port of Tampico (Tamaulipas, northeast) at the beginning of the previous year carrying 10 million liters of smuggled diesel.
In the letter, the vice admiral stated that Semar has not provided information to his lawyer “citing impacts on national security and impacts on the Mexican State.” The former high-ranking official is held in the Altiplano federal prison, in the center of the country. In his fourth letter to Sheinbaum, the detainee, who is the nephew of the Secretary of the Navy during Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government (2018-2024), Rafael Ojeda Durán, claimed that Semar arbitrarily discharged him last December and that this decision has deprived him and his family of income.
Last March, EL PAÍS reported that six sailors involved in the scheme were still active according to sources close to the Navy. Farías Laguna’s lawyer has repeatedly requested information since November to include it in his defense.
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