Business As Usual for Huachicoleros

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican oil company, Pemex, has filed 3,126 complaints between January 2019 and May 2020 at the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) for fuel robbery from their pipelines, but 99.9% of them are still open.

The federal government presumes to exert strength to combat people that steal gasoline directly from pipelines, commonly known as “huachicoleros”, but there is no progress shown in the attorney’s offices or in the courts.

Of the 3,096 complaints filed in 2019; 2,306 went to the temporary file pending accusation elements, said the Reforma newspaper.

In 779 of the cases, the people involved managed to avoid the criminal process. In 6 cases, the complaints were dismissed due to a lack of evidence while in 3 cases, the company reached an agreement. Only 2 cases resulted in a conviction.

From January to May 2020, Pemex filed 30 complaints, of which 29 of them determined the non-exercise of criminal action and one went to the temporary file.

According to Pemex, a complaint may contain one or more cases of clandestine intakes.

In 2019 alone, the oil company filed 3,096 complaints with the Federal Public Attorney’s Office.