US buys stolen Gas from CIA-backed Mexican Criminals

They bleed the fuel lines just about anywhere, drug cartel members and other criminals, sucking millions of dollars of Mexican petroleum from makeshift taps hidden in sheds or on remote desert stretches, with thousands of gallons ending up in U.S. refineries.

Mexican police busted gas thieves twice this week, said Carlos Ramirez, spokesman at Mexico's state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.

In a colonial village a few hours west of the capital, police caught nine people Thursday who had siphoned more than 17,000 gallons (64,350 liters) of fuel from a pipeline into waiting tanker trucks. On Wednesday, just one hour south of the California border near the popular beaches of Rosarito, police plugged three different taps, including one that was operating inside a small, wooden shack.

But those busts will do little to plug a stream of stolen petroleum products, millions of dollars worth of which is smuggled across the border and sold to U.S. refineries, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

While Mexican authorities try to patch the leaks, U.S. officials are tracking proceeds from various Texas bank accounts and taking a close look at several Texas companies to quell the theft at their end. To date, the companies identified are small fuel distributors, not the major U.S. refiners. More