A series of anonymous reports have led federal authorities to dismantle four illegal fuel production centers (huachicol) in San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, and Morelos, according to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) reported this Tuesday. The operations have allowed the seizure of tens of thousands of liters of fuel in the three states, as well as the confiscation of transportation and storage machinery. “These actions reflect the FGR’s ongoing commitment to combat crimes related to hydrocarbons in their various forms,” the Public Ministry stated in a communiqué.
The State of San Luis Potosí has been the main scene of the operations, where two of the four facilities have been dismantled. The first report arrived in the city of San Luis, after the anonymous informant claimed that fuel tankers were constantly entering a facility. During that raid, they confiscated eight tanks of 80,000 liters, nearly 900 containers of 1,000 liters each, and diesel generators. In Laguna de San Vicente, about 30 kilometers from the city of San Luis, federal authorities dismantled another facility where hydrocarbons were processed. There they secured 18 tanks and around 40,000 liters of oil.
In Tizayuca, south of Hidalgo, another report led the Security Cabinet agencies to act. In the raid, they secured a total of 57 containers with a capacity to store up to 157,000 liters of fuel. The last action by the authorities took place in Cuautla, about 40 kilometers from Cuernavaca, in Morelos. Reports about that facility pointed to a constant entry of tankers escorted by trucks, as well as a strong smell of hydrocarbons and chemicals.
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The operations reported by the FGR this Tuesday represent a new blow against huachicol crime, one of those offenses that spans the entire Mexican territory. These cases arise just a week after federal authorities secured a property in Veracruz due to suspicions of hydrocarbon smuggling. The company Servicios Ecológicos EVKADY, in charge of the site, denied that authorities had intervened in the facility and stated they had come to the place due to an anonymous report that “falsely” accused the illegal sale of fuel.
But huachicol has also directly affected the public sector. The latest major case fully involves the former PAN governor of Baja California Ernesto Ruffo (1989-1995), arrested in mid-July in Ensenada for his possible involvement in organized crime and fiscal huachicol (fuel smuggling). Ruffo, 74 years old, was arrested following a “high complexity” investigation against Ingemar, a company founded by the former official. Ruffo has previously defended that his company only carried out customs procedures. But the PRI member has not been an exception. The State of Tamaulipas was the epicenter of fuel smuggling during the administration of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024). The great corruption occurred in its customs, where navy personnel and soldiers collected millions of pesos for allowing millions of liters to pass.
