Top-level Mexican Navy brass, politicians, and other government administrators are now the target of an ongoing investigation into a cartel-connected large-scale illegal fuel market that moved thousands of barrels of fuel and stolen oil.
The incident began to unravel earlier this month, when Mexican authorities arrested Mexican Navy Vice-Admiral Manuel Roberto Farias Laguna and several other top officials over their alleged role in the smuggling of illegal fuel into Mexico through the port of Altamira in the border state of Tamaulipas. Farias Laguna is a nephew by marriage of Mexico’s Navy Secretary, Rafael Ojeda.
This week, during one of her morning news conferences, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum and her top security official Omar Garcia Harfuch revealed that they are going after 200 individuals, including customs officials, military officers, and government officials, all tied to the illegal fuel market.
Sheinbaum revealed that the arrests are tied to an investigation stemming from the March 19 seizure of ten million liters of diesel from the Challenge Procyon ship. As Breitbart News Foundation reported at the time, the ship had sailed from Houston to the Port of Altamira, which is part of the Tampico Metro area in Tamaulipas. That fuel shipment was part of an intricate illegal fuel market where cartels would steal crude oil or fuel in Mexico, have it crossed to the U.S., where that oil would then be sent back to Mexico with doctored documents to hide its origin.
On Monday morning, Mexican Navy Captain Abraham Jeremias Perez Ramirez allegedly committed suicide in his office in the Port of Altamira, where he oversaw security for the port. Perez Ramirez had been outed earlier in the day as part of the federal investigation into the illegal fuel trade. Authorities claimed that he had received 100,000 pesos ($5,000 USD) in that case. Additional information also points to Perez Ramirez having allegedly been cooperating with authorities as part of the investigation.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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