Secretary Bessent Orders Sanctions Against Violent Mexican Cartel
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Wednesday 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.”
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.
OFAC is sanctioning the Mexican transnational criminal organization known as the Cartel de Santa Rosa de Lima (CSRL). With origins dating back to 2014, CSRL is named after the community where its original members are from: Santa Rosa de Lima in Guanajuato. CSRL is primarily involved in fuel and oil theft, going as far as declaring war with CJNG in October 2017 for control over fuel and oil theft in the so-called “Bermuda Triangle,” a collection of municipalities in Guanajuato wherein a Pemex refinery and many Pemex pipelines are located. As recently as August 2025, Mexican authorities have detained members of CSRL and seized 164,000 liters of stolen hydrocarbons in addition to tanks, tanker trucks, and a clandestine pipeline tap device.
Due to its turf war with CJNG, CSRL is responsible for the uptick in violence and homicides in Guanajuato, which is now one of Mexico’s deadliest states. In its fight against CJNG, CSRL has allied itself with the Gulf Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel, both of which are U.S.-designated FTOs and SDGTs, as well as violent Mexico-based drug trafficking organizations. CSRL has also recruited ex-Colombian military and paramilitary personnel to operate in Guanajuato amid its fight against CJNG.
In addition to fuel theft and violence, CSRL has also been involved in narcotics trafficking, including trafficking heroin into the United States.
OFAC is also designating the notorious huachicolero and leader of CSRL, Jose Antonio Yepez Ortiz (a.k.a. “El Marro,” meaning the sledgehammer). Prior to his arrest in 2020, he was one of Mexico’s most wanted criminals due to CSRL’s industrial-scale theft of petroleum. In 2022, he was sentenced to 60 years in prison after being found guilty of kidnapping. He still faces accusations of organized crime, money laundering, illegal fuel extraction, attempted homicide, and more. Despite having been arrested, El Marro continues to be active in CSRL from within prison, sending instructions and orders to his collaborators through his lawyers and family members. He helped establish CSRL’s alliance with the Gulf Cartel from within prison.
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