From January 2019 to September of this year, personnel of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has seized in Hidalgo – one of the Mexican states where the highest number of acts of Huachicoleo is registered – 2 million 552 thousand 769 liters of stolen fuel.
The state of Hidalgo also witnessed one of the most serious accidents provoked by people who tap the pipelines to steal the fuel, which left a balance of 137 people dead.
In this context, according to reports presented by the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection (SSCP), the operations against the theft of fuel from Pemex facilities (which include the discovery of clandestine intakes and the seizure of stolen hydrocarbon) have meant for the treasury a saving of 162,275.6 million pesos from December 2018 to August of this year, an amount equivalent to a daily recovery of 164.5 million pesos.
The states with the highest incidence of huachicoleo are the State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Michoacán, Puebla and Tamaulipas. The custody of the armed forces is concentrated in six priority pipelines 1,528 kilometers long.
“The federal forces (which include the participation of Army, Navy, and National Guard) that participate in the actions against the Huachicol in the country, consist of more than 7 thousand men throughout the entire Pemex pipeline network that carry out surveillance and security activities”, sources said.
The FGR announced that the seizures in Hidalgo are the result of “coordinated work with the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, Secretariat of National Defense, National Guard, Petróleos Mexicanos” and with corporations of the state of Hidalgo.
The FGR specified that in the first nine months of 2021, 4,295 clandestine seizures were secured in Hidalgo; 1,750 investigation files were initiated and 21 convictions were accomplished against 46 alleged “Huachicoleros“.
In addition, 19 searches were carried out on the same number of properties, which were confiscated, and 288 vehicles, 1,968 drums, 85,304 liters of liquefied gas, and 702,500 liters of hydrocarbon were seized.
Source: La Jornada
