Mexican Drug Gangs Diversify Into Oil

The Mexican state-owned oil monopoly Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, estimates some $720 million worth of oil products were stolen from it in 2008, slightly higher than 2007. The robberies have sapped the oil behemoth--the second-largest exporter to the U.S.--for years. But the number of discovered clandestine taps into national pipelines has steadily climbed in recent years, adding to frustrations over falling production at its prize field Cantarell. (See "With Easy Oil Gone, Pemex Sobers Up.")

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"They can't make as much money as they used to make solely on drug trafficking, and it's not like these organizations are going away any time soon," Meiners says. "So in the meantime, they are going to take advantage of a lot of other opportunities that come up. They are really diversifying their business model right now."

In April, arrests in Mexico broke up a gang that allegedly stole some $46 million worth of oil products over two years. Authorities said the group was linked to Los Zetas, a drug gang that became notorious as the enforcement arm of the powerful Gulf Cartel, which historically has controlled shipping routes into South Texas. Pemex says added vigilance and investigations on both sides of the border have put a dent in robberies of natural gas condensate, particularly from the Burgos Basin in northeast Mexico.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/11/mexico-oil-theft-business-energy-drugs.html

police
Pemex executives
local gov't
etc

are stealing oil, seems normal to me