Tanker trucks wait at Petroleos Mexicanos’ storage and dispatch terminal. (Felix Marquez/Associated Press)
key takeaways:
- FinCEN issued an alert on June 30 detailing cartel-linked schemes that use U.S. freight and logistics companies to smuggle fuel into Mexico.
- These schemes divert billions of dollars annually from Mexican tax revenues through mislabeled imports, shell companies, wire transfers, cash deposits, and stablecoin transactions.
- FinCEN urged financial institutions to report suspicious transactions involving U.S. transportation or energy companies doing business with Mexican companies linked to fuel smuggling.
The Treasury Department is teaching financial institutions how to identify suspicious transactions by U.S. freight and logistics companies linked to drug cartel-backed fuel sales to Mexico.
The department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a June 30 alert Mexican cartel fuel smuggling and tax evasion schemes at the US southern border involving US companies exporting fuel.
The notice cites three Mexico-based drug cartels and other international criminal organizations that are involved in fuel-related tax evasion from the illegal import of U.S. fuel.
Shadow fleets of tanker trucks, railcars and ocean vessels are being used to smuggle diesel, gasoline and naphtha from the US to Mexico, mostly for sale at black market gas stations in the states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila.
Connected: US imposes sanctions on Mexican fuel companies in cartel case
The cartels are buying American fuel through colluding Mexican trading companies who avoid paying Mexican import taxes by selling it through legitimate, permitted companies.
According to FinCEN, most of these U.S. fuel traders operate in Texas, where there are many oil and natural gas companies near Mexico, with much of the activity concentrated in Houston, San Antonio, other South Texas areas and the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
Collusive US fuel traders generally have legitimate businesses and long-term relationships with major US refineries and fuel distributors.
FinCEN Alert for June 30, 2026
“As part of the scheme, U.S. fuel traders leveraged these relationships to purchase fuel from a terminal in the United States, specifically for export to Mexico, before transferring it to an interconnected network of U.S. and Mexican front and shale companies in the oil and natural gas, freight transportation, logistics, and other industries under the control of the cartel and their (fuel smugglers),” FinCEN said.
The cartel has Mexican brokers make payments to U.S. fuel traders through banks and crypto service providers using international wire transfers and digital asset transactions, particularly with stable coins. Another approach is to avoid wire transfers through structured cash deposits into US bank accounts along the southern border linked to fuel traders.
More: Authorities crack down on several diesel fuel theft gangs
Sometimes money is sent through shell companies in Mexico and the US, especially Texas.
FinCEN said, “These companies may appear unrelated to the oil and gas industry or be registered at residential addresses, but in reality they are controlled by a single actor and are used to disguise the true source of the funds. In many cases, these shell accounts act as pass-throughs, receiving multiple payments a day on behalf of cartel-linked front companies before moving the money.”
A general illustration of a fiscal fuel theft scheme. (Financial Crime Enforcement Network)
After receiving the money, U.S. fuel traders typically hide the funds with common money-laundering practices, such as investing in real estate, luxury goods, high-end vehicles, expensive jewelry or exclusive vacation rentals or travel destinations.
red flags
FinCEN provided a list of red flags to help financial companies detect suspicious activity related to these schemes. Businesses are encouraged to report the activities listed below by U.S.-based oil, natural gas, freight or logistics companies that transact with Mexican companies linked to fuel smuggling.
Financial institutions should screen customers who are U.S. entities operating in the freight, logistics, oil or gas industries, small or recently established limited liability companies, or sole proprietorships that share a name with a Mexican company. Signs that transportation companies may be involved in illegal fuel schemes include:
- Are registered at residential address
- There should be little or no business expenses, operations or online presence
- Drive high transactions and have higher profit margins than typical businesses in your industry
- Send multiple high-value wire transfers to US fuel distributors or refineries in a single day and later receive commensurate international wire transfers from other Mexican companies.
- Operate in Mexico without a Mexican subsidiary (for example, ABC Fuel without ABC Fuel SA de CV)
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FinCEN notes that smuggled fuel is typically misclassified in customs documents or hidden to avoid Mexican taxes on imported fuel. This action diverts billions of dollars annually in government tax revenues, creating an uneven playing field for Mexico’s state-owned petroleum and oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, and other legitimate Mexican and US energy companies.
U.S. financial institutions should also keep an eye on U.S. fuel distribution companies receiving wire transfers of large amounts from Mexico with little or no detail in the memo field. Two additional red flags are companies that act as pass-through accounts, immediately transferring funds to US oil and gas companies, and companies that transact with multiple Mexican entities but with only one or a few US companies.
Mexico is a top oil producer, producing about 1.5 million barrels of oil a day, FinCEN said. However, the country “lacks the capacity to refine its sour and heavy crude oil into enough gasoline, diesel and other fuels for the Mexican economy. As a result, the U.S. and Mexican energy-trade relationship has become highly integrated, with Mexico exporting more than 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day to refineries in the United States and importing about 2 million barrels of refined fuel per day – equivalent to more than 70% of Mexico’s fuel consumption.”
