Federal financial investigators have identified 13 Pemex gas stations in Tamaulipas that stopped buying gasoline from the state oil company in 2016.

The Financial Intelligence Unit at the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) has detected that 13 Pemex gas stations in Tamaulipas stopped buying gasoline from the state oil company in 2016.

The Secretariat of Finance has filed formal complaints against the owners of the gas stations, charging them with operating with illicit resources, a crime related to fuel theft.

Three of the offending gas stations are located in Reynosa, three more in Matamoros, two in each of the municipalities of Valle Hermoso, Río Bravo and San Fernando and one in Guerrero.

A Finance Secretariat spokesman said that 12 of the stations were shut down on January 8, and the bank accounts of the 13 Pemex franchise-holders have been frozen.

The investigations into illegal fuel sales are also looking at five companies elsewhere in Mexico, where another 10 bank accounts have been frozen for activities related to fuel theft.

Source: Milenio (sp)