Mexico drug cartels stealing billions of dollars in oil from Pemex

Reuters has an astonishing report about Mexican drug cartels tapping into oil pipelines owned by the state oil company Pemex in order to steal enormous amounts of fuel from the Mexican oil industry. Apparently, oil has become a target of the cartels because it is cheap to steal and the risk of being caught is negligible.  The cartels employ several methods to steal the oil, including bribing and threatening Pemex employees and directly tapping the pipelines that bring gasoline and other fuels to the people. The practice has skyrocketed over the last few years, scaring off foreign investors and severely cutting into the profits of one of Mexico's largest industries. Fuel theft is not new or unique to Mexico.  But cartels are taking it to calamitous new dimensions and, in the process, bolstering their bottom line. "Fuel theft just makes these groups more powerful," according to one senior official from the U.S. Drug Enforcement...(Read Full Post)