Sanctioning Cartel de Santa Rosa de Lima

Today, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the violent Cartel de Santa Rosa de Lima, which derives the vast majority of its illicit revenue from fuel and oil theft. This cartel enables a cross-border energy black market and undermines legitimate U.S. oil and…

— Treasury Department (@USTreasury) December 17, 2025

… natural gas companies.

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Cartel de Santa Rosa de Lima (CSRL), which derives the vast majority of its illicit revenue from fuel and oil theft in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. The violent conflict between CSRL and the notorious Mexican terrorist Cartel Jalisco Nuevo Generacion (CJNG) for control of fuel and oil in Guanajuato has made the state one of the deadliest in Mexico. CSRL’s activities also help enable a cross-border energy black market, undermine legitimate U.S. oil and natural gas companies, and deprive the Mexican government of critical revenue. OFAC today also sanctioned Jose Antonio Yepez Ortiz, the leader of CSRL.

“President Trump made a promise to pursue the total elimination of drug cartels to protect the American people,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “At my direction, the Treasury Department is aggressively cutting these criminals off from the U.S. financial system. No matter where or how the cartels are making and laundering money, we will find it and we will stop it.”

FROM PIPELINES TO POCKETS: MEXICAN CARTELS’ FUEL AND OIL THEFT

Fuel theft, including crude oil smuggling, colloquially referred to in Mexico as huachicol, is currently the most significant non-drug revenue source for Mexican cartels. Thieves in Mexico, known as huachicoleros, use various means to steal fuel and crude oil from Mexico’s state-owned energy company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), primarily by bribing corrupt Pemex employees. Other methods include illegally drilling taps into pipelines, stealing from refineries, hijacking tanker trucks, and threatening Pemex employees.

Stolen fuel is sold on the black market around Mexico, the United States, and Central America. Stolen crude oil is smuggled into the United States through complicit Mexican brokers and often mislabeled as “waste oil” or other hazardous material to avoid scrutiny and evade taxes and regulations. The stolen crude oil is then delivered to complicit U.S. importers in the oil and natural gas industry operating near the U.S. southwest border, who sell it at a steep discount on the U.S. and global energy markets before repatriating the significant illicit profits back to the cartels in Mexico.

Through these schemes, Mexican cartels steal billions of dollars from Pemex, fuel rampant violence and corruption across Mexico, and undercut legitimate oil and natural gas companies in the United States. In recent years, as Mexican cartels have become more involved in fuel theft-related activities, the Mexican government has reported billions of dollars in lost revenue due to huachicol.

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