> The problem the cartels will face is that there is no other business that makes as much money
This is not true. See this article[1] and HN thread[2]:
> “It’s good business,” El Polkas says with a shrug. “It makes a lot of money.” When I ask how gasoline compares to narcotics, in terms of overall revenue to Los Zetas, he rubs his index fingers together. “Fifty-fifty,” he says. “It’s approximately as profitable as drugs.”
One anecdote and a thread about semi-fictional action movies about Brazilian Special Police Operators? Not exactly the strongest rebuttal.
And a quick search reveals:
>he Mexican government said fuel theft — huachicol as it is known in Spanish — decreased from about 60,000 barrels per day in 2018 to about 11,000 a day in 2019, with estimated savings of $6 billion.
> According to Pemex, fuel theft averaged about 4,440 barrels per day in 2020.
I have no idea how good the source is, but there's just absolutely no way black market fuel sales could ever generate the same amount of revenue.
> On 2 July state-owned oil firm Pemex reported a 114 per cent year-on-year increase in illegal tapping during the first four months of 2020, during which authorities recovered 9,291,986 litres of stolen fuel with a commercial value of MXN157m (around US$7m).
10,000,000 only has a commercial value of $7m. Imagine the logistics of scaling that kind of operation.
And a quick search reveals:
>he Mexican government said fuel theft — huachicol as it is known in Spanish — decreased from about 60,000 barrels per day in 2018 to about 11,000 a day in 2019, with estimated savings of $6 billion.
> According to Pemex, fuel theft averaged about 4,440 barrels per day in 2020.
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/despite-some-successes-mex...
I have no idea how good the source is, but there's just absolutely no way black market fuel sales could ever generate the same amount of revenue.
> On 2 July state-owned oil firm Pemex reported a 114 per cent year-on-year increase in illegal tapping during the first four months of 2020, during which authorities recovered 9,291,986 litres of stolen fuel with a commercial value of MXN157m (around US$7m).
10,000,000 only has a commercial value of $7m. Imagine the logistics of scaling that kind of operation.