Former governor of Baja California led huge fuel smuggling network
Ernesto Ruffo Appel led a fuel smuggling network that caused damage to the treasury of more than 230 million dollars
Mexican authorities disintegrated a huge fuel smuggling network from the United States, one of whose leaders was the former governor of Baja California, Ernesto Ruffo Appel.
This network caused damage to the treasury of more than 230 million dollars, according to the Attorney General's Office (FGR), which detailed that the former governor was detained in the city of Ensenada, and his arrest was "the result of a highly complex investigation related to large fuel smuggling operations."
Ernestina Godoy, head of the agency, explained that, based on ministerial, customs, fiscal, financial and railway information, the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime "managed to identify the largest fuel smuggling network detected so far, which used railway tank cars to carry out its operations."
The official added that the investigation made it possible to establish that this structure began to operate through a company linked to port services, dredging and port operation activities, founded by Ruffo Appel, who governed Baja California between 1989 and 1995.
He also explained that the companies related to this network were formally dedicated to the importation of petroleum products, but when introducing the merchandise to Mexico from the United States “they declared quantities lower than the real ones or registered products different from those actually transported.”
According to the investigation, “the network declared only 10% of the actual capacity of each railway tank car.”
The FGR explained that, by expanding the investigations in coordination with the National Customs Agency, between January and July 2025 they detected that the investigated organization “would have carried out 4,238 import operations” through the customs of Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Camargo, Matamoros and Reynosa, in the state of Tamaulipas.
The analysis of these operations allowed "to estimate a loss to the Public Treasury of more than 4,000 million pesos (about 230 million dollars), derived from the irregular introduction of fuels and the omission to pay the corresponding contributions."
The case joins that of other officials and former officials involved in fuel smuggling networks, known in Mexico as 'huachicol fiscal'.
In September 2025, Mexican authorities arrested former customs officials and Navy commanders for their alleged participation in a network that brought hydrocarbons into the country using false documentation to evade taxes.
The corruption network includes Vice Admiral Manuel Roberto Farías Laguna, nephew-in-law of the former head of the Navy Secretary Rafael Ojeda Durán, close to the then president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024).