Mexico police arrest 13 in fuel theft tunnel case

[Blue_Tires]

Source: MSNBC

MEXICO CITY - Police have arrested 13 people they say excavated a 500-foot (150-meter) tunnel under a busy neighborhood in Mexico's capital to steal fuel from oil company pipelines, officials said Tuesday.

Roberto Navarro, public security director for the Mexico City borough of Miguel Hidalgo where the tunnel was built, said the state oil company told police it was losing gas in that neighborhood.

Navarro said federal and state police, along with oil company investigators made a surprise raid on the 10-foot (3-meter) wide tunnel on Monday. They found it 4.5 meters (15 feet) under the ground, stretching under more than a city block. Officers surrounded a 12-block area and made 13 arrests during the raid, but said at least three more suspects escaped.

The clandestine and complex engineering project has local officials concerned about the foundations of houses on top of it in the neighborhood, which is just northwest of the posh Polanco district.

"There were props, wiring for lights, home fans and a track that was used to carry the earth that was removed," said Navarro.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37575127/ns/world_news-americas/

[truthisfreedom]

1. I don't understand... the theives are tapping into pipelines and diverting them to trucks or what?

Obviously the oil company isn't losing 10% of it's oil to people hauling it away on their backs. That would be insane.

[Blue_Tires]

2. yeah, in trucks

from another story:


ARROYO MORENO, Mexico - Mexico's violent drug cartels are getting into the oil business, tapping into underground pipelines and siphoning off tons of crude, gasoline and other fuels, some of which is ending up in the United States.

The stolen fuel has created a huge income stream, as much as $715 million a year, that gangs can use to buy weapons, bribe officials and bankroll their bloody battle against the Mexican government, experts warn.


Drug gangs steal oil in Mexico

They sell the fuel through their own gasoline stations; sell it to unscrupulous manufacturers or trucking firms in Mexico; use it to pump up profits at front companies owned by the cartels; or sell it to foreign refiners on the international black market.

Last year, thieves stole an average of 8,432 barrels of petroleum products each day, enough to fill 39 tanker trucks. The thieves are leaving a trail of environmental devastation, with broken pipelines poisoning farm fields and leaking into Mexican rivers.

The number of illegal pipeline taps has more than quadrupled since 2004, from 102 then to 462 last year, despite renewed anti-theft efforts by Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil monopoly better known as Pemex. In 2008 alone, authorities arrested 528 people and seized 517 vehicles, Pemex said. Losses that year were $715 million; it has not released an estimate for 2009.

"It's a big problem and a continual thorn in their side," said David Shields, editor of Energia a Debate, an oil-industry magazine. "And the states that have drug trafficking have more problems with their pipelines."

The thieves use powerful drills and sophisticated valves to prevent any drop in pipeline pressure that might be detected by Pemex. They use hoses to fill fuel trucks with the stolen liquids. Sometimes they even take a more direct approach: hijacking tanker trucks full of fuel.


Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/05/30/20100530mexico-oil-drug-war.html#ixzz0qHwnf4NY

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Well, that clinches it. Peak oil is here. nt

[Blue_Tires]

4. ttt