Nine men were found dead in vehicles near a government fuel line in central Mexico on January 9, 2024. Early investigations suggest a connection to fuel theft, a prevalent issue in the region.
San Juan del Rio’s police chief, Ángel Rangel Nieves, in Queretaro state, said that the bodies were discovered in two vehicles parked near the pipeline north of Mexico City. The vehicles bore license plates from Hidalgo, a state notorious for high fuel theft rates.
The Mexican government, under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador since December 2018, has prioritized tackling the widespread problem of fuel theft. Despite deploying thousands of soldiers to pipeline protection, illegal taps continued, with about 5,600 recorded in 2023. This figure, while lower than the 7,000 reported in previous years, is similar to the numbers at the beginning of López Obrador’s presidency.
Efforts to curb the illicit fuel trade led to a temporary decrease in sales volume. The stolen fuel is often sold by roadside vendors and occasionally at legitimate gas stations. The impact on Petroleos Mexicanos, the national oil company, dropped to a yearly low of $275 million in lost income in 2019 and 2020 but rose drastically to over $1.1 billion in 2022.
Illegal access to pipelines not only threatens local safety but also often triggers violent disputes among criminal factions. Thieves sometimes leave pipeline taps open to garner local support. A tragic incident occurred on January 18, 2019, in the Hidalgo state when an explosion at an illegally accessed pipeline killed at least 134 people in Tlahuelilpan, where locals had gathered to collect spilling gasoline.
The fuel theft issue also affects the United States. In October of the previous year, there was a reported incident where cartel gunmen allegedly forced tanker drivers to hand over their fuel in Matamoros, a city close to Brownsville, Texas.
