RIO BRAVO, Tamaulipas — The nonstop theft of fuel by members of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel continues as one of their main income sources. Their actions pose a public security danger as the tankers and trucks they use continue to blow up taking homes, vehicles, and innocent victims with them.
Through their vast network of corrupt officials and government employees, the Gulf Cartel is able to tap into a series of fuel lines that run through several border cities including Rio Bravo, Progreso, Control, Matamoros, and Reynosa. In Mexico, every step of the oil business and the production of fuel is supposed to be controlled by the government-owned Petroleos Mexicanos or Pemex. However, in reality, cartel members are able to tap directly into the fuel lines in order to steal fuel by the tanker-full.
That fuel is then sold from the tanker on the black market. It is also sold by the gallon on street corners throughout Reynosa by low ranking cartel members called huachicoleros. The constant seizures by Mexican law enforcement and military agencies failed to make a dent in the lucrative enterprise.
Most recently, 16 families lost their homes after a fleeing cartel truck carrying containers of stolen gasoline crashed into vehicles parked along the Faro de Alexandria Street, not far from the main loop called Libramiento. The crash set off a fierce explosion and a large fire that consumed multiple cars and homes in the area.
Local firefighters and police forces were able to evacuate local residents resulting only in a few residents sustaining minor injuries. Officials reported no fatalities. Rio Bravo has also seen a series of arsons that have been targeted at properties belonging to Gulf Cartel members presumably by rival factions.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “A.C. Del Angel” from Reynosa, Tamaulipas.