Mexico Reports Record Number of Illegal Taps Into Fuel Pipelines<br />7, 2018<br />MEXICO CITY — Fuel thieves in Mexico drilled 10,363 illegal taps into state-owned pipelines in 2017, or an average of about 28 every day.<br />Last year, Mexico’s government estimated that the 2016 thefts cost Pemex about $1 billion for the year,<br />but the company provided no monetary estimate of the losses in 2017.<br />The government-owned oil company Pemex reported Wednesday that illegal taps rose about 50 percent last year, from 6,873 in 2016.<br />Raids near Reynosa turned up about 5,500 gallons of presumably stolen fuel, cocaine,<br />17 assault rifles, two .50-caliber sniper rifles and two Claymore mines.<br />Pemex said that We face a great challenge, and all together, the public<br />and the government, we should work in a grand alliance to face this criminal activity that affects the property of all Mexicans,<br />Fuel thefts were once largely confined to two or three states in Mexico,<br />but have since spread across the country, including to the suburbs of Mexico City.<br />Pemex said in a statement that the authorities had closed 70 gas stations for selling presumably stolen fuel to drivers.
