Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Money laundering investigated after Pemex employee assassinated

Money laundering at the state oil company Pemex is being investigated in connection with the murder Thursday of a company engineer in Salamanca, Guanajuato, officials with knowledge of the case told the newspaper Milenio.

The Guanajuato Attorney General’s office is pursuing that line of investigation due to the position the homicide victim held at the Antonio M. Amor refinery in Salamanca, Milenio said.

Gabriel Alejandro Aguilar Mancera worked in the refinery’s department of public works and acquisitions, a position from which he allegedly could have facilitated the laundering of illicitly-gained funds from organized crime groups through the awarding of Pemex contracts.

Aguilar was attacked at 8:00am Thursday by a group of armed men in a pickup truck as he drove his eight-year-old son to school.

In addition to collecting spent bullet casings found at the crime scene in the neighborhood of El Vergel, authorities also recovered evidence allegedly linking the slain official to organized crime, Milenio said.

Aguilar’s son was not shot but received treatment for injuries caused by glass splinters. He is reported to be in stable condition.

The murder is the second of a Pemex employee this year after the oil company’s former chief of security in Salamanca, Tadeo Lineol Alfonzo Rojas, was shot and killed in January. He was also taking his children to school when he was attacked.

In May, the newspaper Reforma reported that Pemex personnel at the Salamanca refinery were under investigation by federal authorities for fuel theft, but the Interior Secretariat said later the same month that the practice had been interrupted.

Guanajuato was Mexico’s most violent state in the first eight months of the year in terms of homicide numbers, with 1,671 victims.

A significant number of the deaths in the state are believed to be related to pipeline petroleum theft and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), considered Mexico’s most dangerous and powerful criminal organization, is reportedly involved in a turf war in Guanajuato with the crime gang known as Santa Rosa de Lima.

Source: Milenio (sp) 

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
Sinaloa violence

20 killed in gruesome massacre attributed to ‘Los Mayos’ in Culiacán

0
The massacre of 20 people, five of whom were decapitated, is the deadliest single episode of violence of what has widely been described as a "war" between "Los Chapitos" and "Los Mayos."
dancers in traditional costumes

Profits from this year’s Guelaguetza festival to help Oaxaca rebuild from Hurricane Erick

0
Oaxaca Governor Salomón Jara announced on Friday that all profits from the Guelaguetza festival, the state’s preeminent Indigenous cultural event, will be used to reconstruct regions destroyed by Hurricane Erick.
Tecate forest fires in Baja California

Conafor reports Tecate blaze is 75% contained after 15 days of wildfire

0
The fire, which has now spread to over 16,000 hectares, started on June 16 in the Guadalajara 2 community of Tecate, a municipality of approximately 100,000.