The U.S. Department of the Treasury is moving against one of Mexico’s most violent cartels, responsible for numerous mass killings, in its effort to control the country’s fuel theft market. Unlike other drug cartels that earn most of their money from narcotics, the main source of income for Cartel Santa Rosa de Lima is the large-scale theft and sale of fuel.
This week, treasury officials announced sanctions against Cartel Santa Rosa de Lima and its founding leader, Jose Antonio “El Marro” Yepez Ortiz. The sanctions prohibit any U.S. company or business from engaging in transactions with CSRDL. Treasury officials are working to seize and freeze any assets tied to the organization. The cartel gets its name from a rural community in Mexico where it was founded.
Breitbart Texas has reported extensively on CSRDL, which operates in Central Mexico and is responsible for mass killings and terrorist style attacks, including car bombs, primarily in the state of Guanajuato. As part of their enforcement actions, CSRDL indiscriminately murdered innocent victims in restaurants and bars as a way to pressure business owners to pay protection or to work for them.
A large part of the violence in central Mexico is attributed to a fierce ongoing turf war between CSRDL and Cartel Jalisco New Generation, another of Mexico’s most violent cartels and one that is currently designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government. Due to the violent turf war with CJNG, CSRDL has created alliances of convenience with the Sinaloa Cartel and the Gulf Cartel, Treasury officials revealed.
According to Treasury officials, one of the primary sources of income for CSRDL is the theft of fuel, which is then sold on the black market in Mexico and the United States. The oil is stolen from Mexico’s state-owned oil company PEMEX with the help of corrupt government officials, the Treasury Department revealed. To be smuggled into the United States, the oil is imported with the help of complicit brokers and companies that label the shipment as “waste oil” or as a dangerous chemical. That oil is then sold to complicit U.S. oil and gas companies and enters the market.
While its founding leader, El Marro, has been in various Mexican jails since 2020, he continues to lead his organization from behind bars.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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