Mexico has dismantled a smuggling ring that moved over a billion dollars of stolen fuel in one of its largest crackdowns on the criminal practice, authorities said Wednesday.
Trafficking of stolen fuel is one of the most lucrative criminal activities in Mexico, alongside the drug trade, and a drain on the state oil company Pemex.
"Multiple lines of investigation have allowed us to identify and dismantle one of the most significant fuel smuggling networks," Ulises Lara of the Mexican Federal Prosecutor's office told a press conference.
Authorities detained 14 people "linked to criminal organizations involved in the illegal procurement, distribution, and sale of hydrocarbons," Mexico's Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch said.
The smuggling ring was discovered after the arrest last September of a vice admiral and five sailors from Mexico's navy as well as former customs officials and businessmen, as part of a crackdown on fuel theft.
The vice admiral was a relative of the secretary of the navy during the government of former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (2018-2024), the political mentor of President Claudia Sheinbaum.