Treasury sanctions Mexican cartel CSRL and its leader over fuel theft network

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2025 — The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Wednesday imposed sanctions on the Cartel de Santa Rosa de Lima, or CSRL, and its leader, Jose Antonio Yepez Ortiz, also known as “El Marro,” in a move aimed at disrupting one of Mexico’s most violent fuel theft organizations.

Treasury said CSRL derives most of its illicit revenue from fuel and oil theft in Guanajuato, where a violent struggle with Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion has helped make the state one of Mexico’s deadliest. The department said the group’s operations support a cross-border energy black market, hurt legitimate U.S. oil and natural gas companies, and deprive the Mexican government of revenue.

The sanctions block any U.S.-linked property or interests in property of the designated targets and generally prohibit U.S. persons from dealing with them. OFAC’s listing identifies Yepez Ortiz as a Mexican national born in Guanajuato and links him directly to CSRL, which it says was established in 2014 and has been added to the Specially Designated Nationals list under transnational criminal organization authorities.

Treasury said fuel theft, known in Mexico as huachicol, has become the most significant non-drug revenue source for Mexican cartels. According to the department, stolen crude oil is smuggled into the United States through complicit Mexican brokers, mislabeled to evade scrutiny, and delivered to complicit U.S. importers near the southwest border for resale at discounted prices.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the action reflects the administration’s push to cut cartels off from the U.S. financial system. A Treasury chart released alongside the sanctions identified Guanajuato’s so-called “Bermuda Triangle” as a key fuel theft region and said Yepez Ortiz remains active in CSRL from custody after his 2020 arrest by Mexican authorities.