Thread: U.S. Companies Bought Millions in Stolen Oil From Mexican Cartels

Lawsuit: U.S. Companies Bought Millions in Stolen Oil From Mexican Cartels

AP

by ILDEFONSO ORTIZ AND BRANDON DARBY 13 Dec 2016

Mexico’s state owned oil company sued and lost against 23 U.S. companies for their alleged roles in the purchase of fuel that had been stolen by drug cartels. The lawsuit further revealed the extent to which the criminal organizations profited.

The U.S. companies who reportedly bought the stolen fuel are listed in court records as: BASF, BASF FINA, Murphy Energy Corporation, Bio NU Southwest, U.S. Petroleum Depot, Continental Fuel, and High Sierra Crude Oil.

Other lawsuits include other companies such as: Big Star Gathering, F&M Transportation, Joplin Energy, Plains All American Pipe Line, Saint James Oil, Superior Crude Gathering, TransMontaigne Partners, Western Refining Company, Conoco Phillips, Superior Crude Gathering, Plains Marketing and others.

In Mexico, the drilling and refining of oil is controlled by Pemex, a state owned company. As Breitbart Texas has reported, Mexican cartels such as the Gulf and Los Zetas have been using the theft of fuel and other byproducts to make a large portion of their respective incomes. In border cities like Reynosa or Matamoros, the Gulf Cartel has been tapping into oil pipelines to steal tractor trailers-full of fuel. In cities like Piedras Negras, Coahuila, or Veracruz, Veracruz, Los Zetas have done the same.



Some of the fuel is sold on street corners to motorists who pay less than half of the price of Mexico’s overpriced gasoline.

The sales have had deadly consequences as some cartel members die in fiery crashes while trying to escape military forces.

In 2009, Mexican authorities worked a joint investigation with their counterparts in the U.S. looking into how large amounts of stolen oil products were illegally moved into Texas, Mexico’s La Jornada reported at the time. Through the use of fake importation documents and with the alleged help of U.S. companies, Mexican cartels were able to transport the fuel north for sale. As a result of that investigation, the Mexican government received more than $2 million in restitution.

In 2010, Pemex sued five companies in connection with the purchase of fuel and other oil products stolen by cartel members, The Monitor reported at the time.

The American companies involved in the lawsuit were accused of having “profited from a scheme that started with siphoning off thousands of gallons of product, moving it through Rio Grande Valley ports of entry and gathering it at the Port of Brownsville before shipping it to buyers across the state,” The Monitor reported.

Most recently, Mexico’s Animal Politico reported that over time, Pemex sued a total of 23 U.S. companies seeking to recover $300 million in three lawsuits, including the 2010 case. Pemex lost most of the cases and only won an award of $71 million from five companies–however they did not have the funds to pay the judgement.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/...xican-cartels/

Hmmm. Sounds like Mexico needs to do a better job securing the border.

5/30/10

Stolen oil fueling Mexico's drug war

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

5/30/10

Stolen oil fueling Mexico's drug war

And what is so peculiar - these companies had no idea they were buying stolen oil!!!

It's been a long time since we lived on the border, and a while since we visited, but gas was always so much cheaper just across the bridge in Mexico.

Originally Posted by nntrixie

And what is so peculiar - these companies had no idea they were buying stolen oil!!! . . .

Executives from five Texas companies have confessed in a U.S. district court to knowingly buying million of dollars of natural-gas condensate stolen from Pemex. Condensate is a liquid distilled from natural gas that can be used, like oil, to make fuels, plastics and other products.

One oil-purchasing company, Continental Fuels of San Antonio, received 22 tanker trucks full of stolen condensate at its terminal in Brownsville, Texas, between late January and early March 2009, U.S. prosecutors say. It put the liquid on barges and sold it to manufacturing companies.

Tim Brink, Continental's president, was secretly recorded on a wiretap on Feb. 12, 2009, discussing price negotiations and acknowledging that the condensate was stolen.

http://www.alipac.us/f12/stolen-oil-...ug-war-191142/

Good!!!

I'd like to know the outcome of this.

Originally Posted by nntrixie

. . . It's been a long time since we lived on the border, and a while since we visited, but gas was always so much cheaper just across the bridge in Mexico.

"Gasoline prices in Mexico are higher than in the United States, where market prices prevail, and Pemex loses about $3 billion a year importing gasoline into Mexico, according to Nomura analyst Benito Berber."
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Tue Dec 27, 2016 | 11:42am EST

Mexico gasoline prices to rise up to 20.1 percent in January

Men walk pass a petrol station with the Pemex logo in Mexico City, Mexico October 13, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Mexican gasoline prices will rise by as much as 20.1 percent next month compared to the highest recorded prices in December, the government said on Tuesday, as part of a program to end years of government-set prices at the pump.

In a statement, the finance ministry said the widely used Magna gasoline brand will rise 14.2 percent and will sell at an average price of 15.99 pesos (78 cents) per liter at retail, while Premium fuel will go up 20.1 percent to an average of 17.79 pesos per liter.

Diesel will rise 16.5 percent, with an average price of 17.05 pesos per liter.

The ministry's price ceilings will be in effect through Feb. 3. After that, the maximum price will be set bi-weekly, until Feb. 18, when it will be set daily.

"It's an important change," Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade said in a local radio interview. "It's a change that will allow prices to reflect costs, and avoid artificial distortions."

Earlier this month, the energy regulatory commission said a staggered fuel price liberalization will begin at the end of March and extend through the rest of 2017.

The move will phase out government-set gasoline prices, a practice that has prevailed in Mexico for decades, and replace them with market prices.

The change is one of the most tangible parts of a landmark energy reform program in Mexico, which in 2013 ended the 75-year monopoly of state oil company Pemex over nearly all facets of the sector, from crude production to retail fuel sales.

In April, Mexico allowed private companies to import fuels for the first time, nine months ahead of what the energy reform program originally stipulated.
The reforms also paved the way for private companies to establish their own non-Pemex branded gas stations for the first time since the 1930s. That began earlier this year.

Gasoline prices in Mexico are higher than in the United States, where market prices prevail, and Pemex loses about $3 billion a year importing gasoline into Mexico, according to Nomura analyst Benito Berber.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-me...-idUSKBN14G15M

U.S. refiners cash in on Mexico's record fuel imports

When we lived on the border, we bought gas in Mexico and when we went back for a visit, we would always fill up in Mexico.

Of course, that was way back in the dark ages, and I long for the gas prices in America of that day.

Oil theft at Pemex pipeline in Mexico kills four