By Stefanie Eschenbacher
TEPETITLAN, Mexico, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Mexican authorities raided a tunnel used to steal fuel from a state-owned pipeline this week, offering a rare glimpse into a long-running battle against a black-market trade often dominated by organized crime.
The 22-meter-long (72-foot-long) tunnel was discovered outside a home in rural Hidalgo state near the town of Tepetitlan.
It led to two taps on an underground pipeline, the Hidalgo state attorney said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that security forces also seized drugs there.
The Hidalgo state attorney declined to elaborate on the announcement. A person familiar with the operation who spoke on condition of anonymity said there have been no arrests so far in connection with the tunnel.
While authorities did not name the pipeline, Reuters matched the site coordinates to an energy ministry map of hydrocarbon infrastructure, identifying it as the conduit owned by state energy company Pemex between the Tula refinery in Hidalgo to the Salamanca refinery in Guanajuato state.
When Reuters journalists visited the site on Wednesday near the rural settlement of Sayula, Army and National Guard personnel were standing guard, and a banner reading “property seized” was posted.
Huachicol, as the theft and sale of fuel is known in Mexico, was originally the domain of local criminal gangs but has transformed into a violent, multi-billion-dollar business dominated by powerful cartels. It can involve gasoline, diesel and other refined products as well as crude oil.
Pemex did not respond to a request for comment. It reported the discovery of 11,774 illegal taps on its pipelines in 2024.
The company said in a U.S. regulatory filing last year that efforts to combat the black-market trade “have not produced sustained improvement in recent years.”
Thieves usually dig long tunnels from private land to reach pipelines. The stolen fuel is often sold locally in glass bottles or plastic canisters at a steep discount to petrol station prices.
Tunnels used to tap into pipelines often have elaborate engineering so fuel can be siphoned without causing pipeline pressure to drop enough to alert Pemex.
The fuels are highly flammable and accidents occur, including an explosion caused by suspected fuel thieves that killed at least 137 people in 2019.
(Reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher; editing by Daina Beth Solomon and Cynthia Osterman)
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