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Close to the leadership of Mexico\u2019s hyper-violent Jalisco New Generation cartel is a man known as \u201cthe tank\u201d who leads its fuel theft arm, supplying it with tens of millions of dollars a year by selling stolen gasoline through a network of seemingly legitimate businesses, according to the U.S. Treasury.<\/p>\n
Ivan Cazarin Molina gets his nickname not from the battlefield weapon but rather the massive storage tanks he manages in Mexico\u2019s Gulf coast state of Veracruz.<\/p>\n
Cazarin Molina was among nine Mexicans and 26 Mexico-based entities sanctioned Tuesday by Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control for their alleged role in fueling the cartel\u2019s illicit activities.<\/p>\n
Fuel theft has been a major problem for Mexico\u2019s government<\/a><\/span> and state-owned petroleum company Pemex, costing it billions of dollars.<\/p>\n Organized criminal groups illegally tap pipelines, hijack tanker trucks or steal directly from refineries. President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador put the army in charge of stopping it<\/a><\/span> at the beginning of his term.<\/p>\n Mexico\u2019s cartels have been known to branch into legitimate business sectors to diversify their income, whether it be produce<\/a><\/span> or internet service<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n According to the U.S. Treasury, Cazarin Molina answers directly to Jalisco cartel leader Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, better known as \u201cEl Mencho.\u201d The U.S. government offers a $10 million reward for information leading to the leader\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n The gasoline that Cazarin Molina and allies allegedly steal is held in the fuel storage tanks he controls in Veracruz, then sold through a network of gas stations that he manages. The companies have professional-looking logos, slogans and names like \u201cEtanofuel\u201d and \u201cG Energy.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the gasoline is sold to third parties and then into the United States.<\/p>\n A brother and father-in-law, imprisoned in Mexico but allegedly still involved in cartel activities, were among the others sanctioned. A nephew made the list as well.<\/p>\n The new sanctions freeze any assets the individuals or companies have in the U.S. and prohibit U.S. citizens from doing business with them.<\/p>\n – AP News<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Close to the leadership of Mexico\u2019s hyper-violent Jalisco New Generation cartel is a man known as \u201cthe tank\u201d who leads its fuel theft arm, supplying it with tens of millions of dollars a year by selling stolen gasoline through a network of seemingly legitimate businesses, according to the U.S. Treasury. Ivan Cazarin Molina gets his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":8871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/GXIPAYnWMAUuqhV.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security-public-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8870"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8872,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8870\/revisions\/8872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}