Authorities in central Mexico stated Tuesday they discovered the our bodies of 9 males in autos close to a gasoline pipeline.
The circumstances across the deaths remained underneath investigation, however there have been indications that gasoline theft might have been concerned. Mexico faces an issue with gangs that steal gasoline, diesel and pure gasoline from authorities pipelines.
Ángel Rangel Nieves, police chief of San Juan del Rio metropolis within the central state of Queretaro, stated the our bodies had been present in two autos close to the pipeline north of Mexico Metropolis. The autos had license plates from the neighboring state of Hidalgo, thought of one of many facilities of gasoline theft.
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Since taking workplace in December 2018, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made combating gasoline theft a central purpose of his administration. However regardless of hundreds of troops being deployed to protect pipelines, hundreds of unlawful faucets are nonetheless discovered yearly.
In 2023, about 5,600 unlawful faucets had been discovered nationwide. That was down from over 7,000 in 2022 however virtually the identical stage as when López Obrador took workplace.
The federal government has cracked down on open gross sales of stolen gasoline and managed to scale back the quantity for a few years. Stolen fuels are sometimes bought by the facet of the highway and generally via licensed gasoline stations.
Losses from stolen gasoline on the state-owned oil firm, Petroleos Mexicanos, dropped to as little as $275 million per 12 months in 2019 and 2020. However since then losses have ballooned, rising to over $1.1 billion in 2022.
The pipeline faucets trigger violence between gangs and pose a danger to residents. To achieve assist amongst native individuals, thieves generally go away faucets open.
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On Jan. 18, 2019, an explosion at an illegally tapped pipeline in Hidalgo state killed not less than 134 individuals. The explosion occurred within the city of Tlahuelilpan as residents collected gasoline leaking from the faucet.