The Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) announced on Monday that it had detected and secured a tunnel in Nuevo León that was used to steal fuel from a Pemex pipeline. Federal agents also seized more than 200,000 liters of fuel from a nearby property.
Ulises Lara, an FGR special prosecutor and spokesman, said that the tunnel connected an 18-inch pipeline within a Pemex facility in Santa Catarina — a municipality in the Monterrey metropolitan area — with an adjacent property.
La #FGR, en coordinación con @Pemex, @SSPCMexico, @Defensamx1, @GN_MEXICO_ y Policía de Nuevo León, desarticuló un sistema de robo de hidrocarburo.
Se aseguró un túnel conectado a poliducto, más de 205 mil litros de combustible, 23 tractocamiones y 10 autotanques, entre otros.… pic.twitter.com/fJQ9ozDO8V— FGR México (@FGRMexico) May 11, 2026
“Agents of the Criminal Investigation Agency located the tunnel-like excavation in the facilities of the Pemex Storage and Distribution Terminal, located in Santa Catarina, Nuevo León,” Lara said in a video message.
“Upon carrying out on-site inspections, federal agents discovered that the tunnel connected with an adjacent property located on the old road to Villas de García,” he said.
Lara said that personnel with Pemex, the federal Security Ministry, the Defense Ministry, the National Guard and the Nuevo León state police collaborated with the FGR on the operation to secure the tunnel. He said that intelligence work and field work led to the discovery of the tunnel.
The newspaper El Financiero described the passageway connecting the Pemex facility to the nearby property as a “Chapo-style” tunnel “with sophisticated engineering.” In 2015, notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán escaped from the Altiplano federal prison in México state via a tunnel.
The FGR released video footage showing federal agents entering the tunnel in Santa Catarina. It also published photos of the property to which the tunnel led.
205,418 liters of fuel seized
Lara said that authorities found “equipment used for the illicit extraction of fuel” in the tunnel, including a “quick-closing valve” and a high-pressure hose.
He said that authorities found that the adjacent property — on which there is a large arch-like structure — was used to store fuel. Lara said that a “hidden” access to the tunnel was found within a “metallic maritime container” on the property.
He said that federal agents seized “approximately” 205,418 liters of fuel from the property as well as 23 tractor-trailers, 10 tanker trucks, a tow truck, three other vehicles, seven dry vans (box trailers) and various containers including a tank, a barrel and two drums. Lara also said that a range of “documentation” and a cell phone were seized, but no arrests were reported. Given that the tunnel linked a pipeline in a Pemex facility to an adjacent property, it appears probable that state oil company workers were involved in the fuel theft scheme.
Fuel theft has long been a problem in Mexico, and tunnels to facilitate the crime have been discovered previously, including in México state in 2024. Thieves commonly perforate, or “tap,” Pemex pipelines to steal fuel such as gasoline and diesel, a practice that can be extremely dangerous. Numerous perforated pipelines have exploded in Mexico. A pipeline explosion in Hidalgo in 2019 claimed more than 130 lives.
In 2025, Pemex recorded losses of almost 23.5 billion pesos (US $1.36 billion) due to fuel theft, a 14.4% increase compared to the previous year.
With reports from El Financiero and Proceso
