MEXICO CITY (AP) — The United States Treasury Department reported Wednesday that it has imposed sanctions on the Mexican Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, a very violent criminal group dedicated to fuel theft and trafficking and that is waging a war with the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel for control of the state of Guanajuato, in the center of the country.
Santa Rosa de Lima has turned Guanajuato into one of the deadliest states in Mexico, and its activities “contribute to the existence of a cross-border black market in energy, undermine legitimate U.S. oil and natural gas companies, and deprive the Mexican government of critical revenue” by stealing billions of dollars from Pemex, the state oil company, the Treasury said.
The Treasury also sanctioned the leader of the criminal group, José Antonio Yepez Ortiz, imprisoned in Mexico since 2020. The cartel, which emerged in the community of Guanajuato from which it takes its name, has operated since 2014. In August the Mexican authorities seized 164,000 liters of stolen hydrocarbons.
U.S. authorities have long considered fuel theft and smuggling the Mexican cartels’ largest non-drug source of income. In Mexico, this illegal trafficking suffered a blow in September with the arrest of senior members of the Navy involved in this smuggling.
The Treasury recalled that crude oil thefts are done “mainly by bribing corrupt Pemex employees,” drilling pipelines and hijacking tanker trucks. The fuel is then sold on the black market in Mexico, the United States and Central America.
Upon entry into the United States, it is often mislabeled as “waste oil” or other hazardous material to avoid scrutiny and evade taxes and regulations, the Treasury explained.
“It doesn’t matter where or how the cartels are making and laundering money,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “We will find it.”
