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of dollars worth of crude oil and refined products from Mexico's
state-owned oil company and sell it to US refiners, a US official
said on Monday. 'There is a cooperative effort by the United
States and Mexican governments to investigate the theft of petroleum
products from Mexico,' said Nancy Herrera, spokeswoman for the US
Attorney's office in Houston. The Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agency, or ICE, will hold a news conference in San
Antonio on Tuesday to announce that the United States will return
$2.4 million in funds generated from oil smuggling to the Mexican
government, the agency said. The announcement comes on the heels of
US President Barack Obama's meetings over the weekend with Mexican
President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper
in Guadalajara, Mexico. At least one US energy industry executive
has pleaded guilty in a scheme to steal about $2 million worth of
petroleum products from Mexico's state oil monopoly Pemex and sell it
to US refiners. Donald Schroeder, president of Houston-based
Trammo Petroleum, pleaded guilty in May to smuggling stolen petroleum
products—including crude oil condensate—from Pemex, according to
court documents. Schroeder is scheduled to be sentenced in December.
Trammo Petroleum purchased the stolen petroleum products, which
were shipped into the United States on barges and trucks, and then
sold them to unspecified unnamed companies, according to documents
filed by the US government in May 2009. 'He has admitted he and
others were involved in shipping a barge of condensate worth $2
million from Brownsville (Texas) to a company near Houston,' Herrera
said. Fuel theft is rampant in Mexico and costs state oil monopoly
Pemex (PEMX.UL) more than $2 billion a year. Federal police last
month raided the Pemex headquarters as part of an investigation into
the thefts. President Felipe Calderon last week accused the
country's powerful drug gangs of being involved in the fuel thefts.
