A Utah couple and their two sons are facing federal charges in the United States for allegedly smuggling US $300 million worth of crude oil from Mexico in collaboration with Mexican criminal organizations, authorities said.
James Jensen, 56, and his wife, Kelly, 54, were arrested last week at their 26,893-square-foot modern mansion in Sandy, Utah, valued at US $9.1 million. U.S. Marshals used a battering ram to enter the property during a multi-state operation, court records show. Their sons, Maxwell, 29, and Zachary, 27, were also indicted.
The family allegedly orchestrated 2,881 illegal shipments of oil since May 2022 through their Texas-based company, Arroyo Terminals, disguising cargo as “waste lube” or “petroleum distillates” using falsified customs documents.
Payments were directed to Mexican businesses tied to cartels, according to a U.S. District Court warrant. Over US $47 million was transferred to these entities, prosecutors said.
Federal agents simultaneously raided Arroyo Terminals’ Rio Hondo facility near the Mexican border. The court ordered the forfeiture of US $300 million in assets, including the company, bank accounts, vehicles, their luxury residence in Sandy and a secondary home in Draper, Utah.
Reports of the arrests didn’t directly mention the Mexican Navy recently seizing 10 million liters of stolen diesel fuel (allegedly labeled as lubricating oil additives) in the northern coastal state of Tamaulipas, and finding 7.9 million liters of stolen hydrocarbons (the primary chemicals in crude oil, natural gas, gasoline, diesel and other fossil fuels) on a property in Baja California
James and Kelly Jensen were arrested on April 23 and released under GPS monitoring, and have had to surrender their passports. Their sons were detained in Texas pending arraignment, according to recent coverage.
Neither the Jensens nor attorneys representing them have been quoted in the media regarding the case.
The allegations led to this headline in the Berlin-based business news outlet BNE IntelliNews: “Cross-border oil smuggling reveals dark underbelly of US-Mexico trade nexus.”
The article highlighted how Mexico loses an estimated US $24 million daily to fuel smuggling and huachicol (a general term for fuel theft), totaling nearly US $10 billion annually, according to industry analyst PetroIntelligence.
The newspaper El Financiero wrote that Mexico’s state-run oil and gas company, Pemex, reported seizing 18 million liters of illicit fuel/hydrocarbons this spring — but only to note that the amount was just 7.2% of the volume tied to the Jensen operation.
“These thefts can’t occur without institutional complicity,” Francisco Barnés de Castro, former head of Mexico’s Energy Regulatory Commission, said in IntelliNews. He was referring mainly to poorly supervised offshore oil platforms.
The arrests followed Mexico’s recent suspension of U.S. refiner Valero’s import permits during a smuggling crackdown, which disrupted supplies and boosted Pemex’s market share.
Authorities have not disclosed additional suspects but emphasize the investigation remains active. Initial court hearings are scheduled for May 8 in Brownsville, Texas, according to reports.
With reports from El Financiero, El Economista, KSLTV.com and KRGV.com
