The Zetas, Sinaloa Tap New Sources of Revenue

As pointed out by an article in World Politics Review, Mexico’s major drug gangs are being squeezed between the “war on drugs” and the global economy, forcing them to turn over a new leaf.  So it seems they are looking to generate revenue by stealing legal commodities.

Oil tapping is perhaps the most prominent tactic to cash in. Last year Pemex detected 712 pipeline taps, a five-fold increase since 2005. Because selling oil can rouse suspicions, in many cases oil bandits are left hocking it for half price, though on occasion they are believed to have sold it on to Pemex franchise stations. And at least a few times, bandits have been enterprising enough to link up with businessmen in the US, five of whom have been indicted in Texas in recent years for buying stolen gas condensate from Mexico.

Among Mexico’s drug gangs, the Zetas are most clearly tied to oil theft. In 2009 the Mexican government broke up an operation linked to the Zetas suspected of stealing $46 million worth of oil in the previous two years. A U.S.-Mexican probe in 2010 put the amount of income generated by the Zetas from stolen oil on par with the group’s estimated revenue from drugs.

Surely, other large gangs are involved. Pemex exported more than $100 billion in oil to the United States last year; of that, the company claims “less than one percent” was lost to theft. Energy analysts in Texas put the put the figure between $2 billion and $4 billion annually, noting that the government has been slow to come to grips with the extent of pipeline tapping given the pressing demands of the raging drug war. Regardless of the exact number, hundreds of millions are going to Mexico’s drug gangs, the Zetas and others.

In 2011, signs have emerged of a new frontier in revenue diversification: stolen foodstuffs. Cold snaps last winter wiped out large swaths of the harvest in China, the world’s largest grain producer, in Mexico, the fourth-largest, and elsewhere, driving up the value of the existing bounty. Two weeks ago, a warehouse in the state of Sinaloa was robbed of 250 tons of grain after bandits locked the facility’s owner in a storage room. Sinaloa state police count five such thefts so far in 2011, though they admit many others have likely gone unreported. The head of Sinaloa’s agricultural producers association told Reuters, “They come in groups of 20 to 30 masked men with their own trailers. It’s very well organized.” Suspicions naturally fall on the powerful Sinaloa cartel.