MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president says that the government is acquiring 500 more tanker trucks to carry gasoline and diesel while pipelines are shut down to combat fuel-theft gangs and that officials are also arranging with private railroads to transport fuel.
After taking office Dec. 1, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched an offensive against the $3 billion per-year fuel theft industry, which has been stealing fuel by drilling taps into pipelines. The gangs even tried to break into a facility owned by the Pemex oil company to drill a tap there.
Lopez Obrador said Wednesday that at one pipeline, thieves didn’t just skim off part of the flow — they drilled so many taps they siphoned off the entire contents of the duct.
The pipeline shutdown has caused shortages at service stations.
The Associated Press
