FGR Dismantles Mexico's Largest Cross-Border Fuel Smuggling Network from Texas: Fiscal Damage Exceeds 4,000 Million Pesos

Mexico's Attorney General's Office (Fiscalía General de la República, FGR) dismantled, on July 16, 2026, the largest cross-border fuel smuggling network ever detected in the country. The operation imported gasoline and diesel from Texas refineries by rail, declaring only 10 percent of the actual volume at customs. Estimated fiscal damage exceeds 4,000 million pesos, according to Attorney General Ernestina Godoy in a press conference.

The network operated through rail tanker cars with a capacity of up to 110,000 liters each, entering through customs at Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Camargo, Matamoros, and Reynosa, in Tamaulipas. Each shipment declared approximately 10,000 liters, while the remaining 90 percent crossed without customs inspection or tax payment. Once inside Mexican territory, the fuel was unloaded at private railway sidings operating without permits from the Energy Regulatory Commission (Comisión Reguladora de Energía, CRE) and transferred to tanker trucks from 17 companies for distribution across Coahuila, Durango, and Zacatecas.

Between January and July 2025, the network conducted 4,238 import operations and moved 15.3 million liters of undeclared fuel using 162 tanker cars. Direct tax evasion totaled 106.8 million pesos: 88.5 million from the Special Tax on Production and Services (IEPS) and 18.3 million from Value Added Tax (IVA). The total damage to public finances, however, exceeds 4,000 million pesos, equivalent to approximately 230 million dollars. The financial investigation identified movements of 3,075 million pesos across approximately 80 domestic bank accounts, as well as foreign exchange operations exceeding 1,386 million dollars with triangulation abroad.

The FGR obtained 25 arrest warrants against partners, logistics operators, customs agents, and public servants. As of July 16, five individuals had been detained, including Ernesto Ruffo Appel, former governor of Baja California, and Ricardo Thompson Navarro. The company Ingemar S.A. de C.V., founded by Ruffo Appel and holding a CRE permit since 2023 to import up to 500 million liters of fuel, served as the network's front operation. Its diesel imports exceeded authorized volumes by more than 10 times, and regular gasoline imports by more than 3.5 times.

The investigation originated with the seizure of 33 rail tankers in Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila, in July 2025. The case signals a likely tightening of surveillance over rail imports of refined petroleum products along the Texas-Mexico border corridor, which supplies gasoline and diesel to the industrial markets of northern Mexico.

This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence based on verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.