Mexican authorities uncovered and dismantled a sophisticated mass hydrocarbon theft operation involving a tunnel that secretly connected to a storage terminal of state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in the northern city of Santa Catarina, Nuevo León, leading to the seizure of more than 205,000 liters of fuel and dozens of vehicles.

The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) announced that investigators from the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) located the tunnel at the Pemex Storage and Dispatch Terminal in the Monterrey metropolitan area. The underground excavation led to a nearby property where authorities found 205,000 liters of fuel, 23 tractor-trailers, 10 tanker trucks, offices, common areas, and various containers used for hydrocarbon storage.

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Special Prosecutor Ulises Lara López confirmed that the tunnel connected the property to an 18-inch Pemex pipeline. “Personnel of the Federal Ministerial Police, together with the aforementioned authorities, located a maritime metal container inside which the entrance to the tunnel was hidden, thus confirming the connection between the raided property and the Pemex Santa Catarina facilities,” Lara López said.

The discovery was carried out by judicial agents in coordination with Pemex, the Federal Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, military forces from the Defense Ministry, the National Guard, and the Nuevo León state police.

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