Mexico's Chamber of Deputies to examine online sale of mini-refineries amid crime concerns

The Mexican Chamber of Deputies is set to address the alarming trend of mini-refineries being sold online, a practice that has enabled criminal organizations to shift from stealing fuel to producing their own.

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It is worrying that in Mexico there are refineries as if they were corner stores.

Kenia López Rabadán, president of the Chamber's Presiding Council, expressed deep concern over the availability of these "pseudo-illegal refineries," comparing them to "corner stores." She highlighted the significant damage to public finances and the risks posed to residents in surrounding areas. López Rabadán emphasized that organized crime's establishment of illicit infrastructure signals a disregard for the rule of law, compelling legislative action.

A recent investigation revealed that these micro-refineries are being openly advertised and sold on global e-commerce platforms, with prices ranging from $2,500 to $700,000, depending on scale and capacity. The current legal vacuum in Mexico's Hydrocarbons Law allows for the purchase of such facilities without legal repercussions.

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These pseudo-illegal refineries not only cause damage to the public treasury, they put at risk the people who live in neighboring areas; it cannot be possible that organized crime assumes that there is no rule of law and therefore installs its own illicit infrastructure, evidently after seeing the investigation by EL UNIVERSAL, it obliges me to say publicly 'of course, we must legislate', and we must give certainty to Mexicans that that cannot happen.

López Rabadán announced that her party, the PAN, will prioritize an initiative to close this legislative loophole. Meanwhile, Ricardo Monreal, coordinator for the Morena party, called for increased customs surveillance, as these complexes are often imported in pieces and assembled within Mexico. He believes existing laws are sufficient to prohibit such private installations without authorization.

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Customs surveillance is needed; I believe the legal framework is sufficient from the moment it prohibits these types of private installations without the authorization of the energy commission.