Abel Barajas/ Reform Agency
Sunday, January 15, 2023 | 08:02
CDMX.- Between January 2015 and August 2016, during the management of General Eduardo León Trauwitz in the Pemex Strategic Safeguard Subdirectorate, the huachicoleros stole more than 2 thousand 194 million liters of hydrocarbons in two pipelines, with a value of more than 25 thousand 197 million pesos, revealed the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR).
In an accusation presented before a judge by the Specialized Prosecutor for Organized Crime against Colonel Emilio Cosgaya Rodríguez, former manager of Technical Management of Strategic Safeguarding, it is detailed that the losses occurred in the 12-20-14 Minatitlán-Mexico pipelines and 12-10 Madero-Cadereyta.
The figure is three times greater than the 8 thousand 633 million pesos in losses that Pemex recognized in the first half of 2022 due to milking in all its polyducts.
The Minatitlán-Mexico pipeline measures 591.8 kilometers and passes through the country’s capital, Puebla, Tlaxcala and Veracruz. There, the FGR counted 97 clandestine taps that were not reported in San Martín Texmelucan, Puebla.
In the period from January 27, 2015 to August 9, 2016, the huachicoleros removed from this pipeline 5 million 135 thousand 81 barrels of diesel, one million 540 thousand 306 barrels of Premium gasoline and 5 million 196 thousand barrels of regular gasoline, all with a value of 13 thousand 101.2 million pesos.
In Minatitlán-Mexico, which extends 488.8 kilometers and goes from the Ciudad Madero refinery, Tamaulipas, to the Cadereyta refinery, Nuevo León, the Prosecutor’s Office detected 63 clandestine taps in the referred period.
There, the criminals stole 1,931,538 barrels of diesel, 1,405,744 barrels of Premium gasoline and 2,698,455 barrels of regular gasoline, with a value of more than 12,96.1 million.
In the accusation, the FGR does not specify the methodology of its estimates, but it does accuse that, with their actions and omissions, the officials allowed the diversion of fuel.
For this matter, on May 14, 2019, a control judge in Almoloya de Juárez ordered the arrest of the General and 12 other former Pemex officials for organized crime and illegal theft of hydrocarbons.
Trauwitz – Enrique Peña’s chief of escorts during his period as Governor of Edomex – fled to Canada, a country to which Mexico requested his extradition in 2019.
On December 17, 2021 Trauwitz was captured in Vancouver, with a provisional arrest warrant for extradition purposes.
On March 14, 2022, the General was released from prison, after the British Columbia Court granted him restricted liberty, with the imposition of an electronic bracelet. Until today he continues his extradition process under those conditions.
And they ask for 37 years in prison for their former collaborator
The Attorney General of the Republic formally asked a judge to impose 37 years and 6 months in prison on Colonel Emilio Cosgaya Rodríguez, a collaborator of General Eduardo León Trauwitz in the Pemex Strategic Safeguard Subdirectorate.
Cosgaya, a prisoner in the Altiplano prison, is accused of organized crime and illegal theft of hydrocarbons. In his brief, the Prosecutor’s Office presents the judge with 69 testimonies, 42 expert opinions, 61 documentaries and 14 pieces of evidence as evidence.
The FGR is open to Cosgaya requesting some form of early termination of the process, such as an abbreviated procedure, in which he would be forced to plead guilty.
