CJNG Builds Fuel Smuggling Empire With Support From Foreign Companies And Mexican Officials

“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat

A Reuters investigation revealed that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) has established a transnational fuel smuggling network involving U.S. companies, foreign vessels, and collusion within Mexican institutions, in what authorities have described as a multi-million-dollar “fiscal huachicol.”

On March 8, the oil tanker Torm Agnes arrived at the port of Ensenada with nearly 120,000 barrels of diesel, despite the port lacking the necessary infrastructure to handle flammable hydrocarbons. Tanker trucks waited at the dock to load the fuel using improvised hoses. According to security sources, an operation was directed by CJNG operators with support from the U.S. company Ikon Midstream.

The Houston-based company allegedly purchased the diesel in Canada, falsely declared it as lubricant, and delivered it to a Mexican company called Intanza, identified by authorities as a cartel front. Port records reviewed by Reuters confirm that Ikon Midstream made at least five similar shipments in 2025 to Mexican ports, primarily to Tampico, using the same strategy to evade the special tax on production and services (IEPS).

The estimated value of the shipment was $12 million, but by declaring it as lubricant, it avoided paying nearly $7 million in taxes. Officials from both countries claim that these types of maneuvers have allowed criminal groups to capture up to a third of the Mexican diesel and gasoline market.

The Torm Agnes case is just one piece of a broader network that also involves the smuggling of crude oil stolen from Pemex and its sale in the United States with the help of corrupt importers. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the CJNG has turned illegal fuel into its main source of income outside of drug trafficking.

The magnitude of the scheme has sparked a scandal in Mexico, even implicating the Navy, which is responsible for ports. Last March, the seizure of the Challenge Procyon ship in Tampico led to the arrest of 14 people, including former customs officials and naval commanders, accused of participating in smuggling operations.

Since October 2024, Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration has seized more than 500,000 barrels of illicit fuel, although fiscal losses from smuggling are estimated at nearly $4 billion annually. Investigations point to a complex network intertwined with organized crime, tax evasion, and institutional corruption, with the CJNG at the helm of a parallel energy empire operating on both sides of the border.

Source: Segundo a Segundo