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2026-05-28 Caribbean-Latin America
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The paper trail linking a US fuel trader to a notorious Mexican cartel
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[Reuters] U.S. authorities raided the offices of Ikon Midstream, a Houston fuel trader whose diesel exports are part of fuel-smuggling investigations in Mexico, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, two U.S. officials and a Mexican security official.
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The operation, in which law enforcement executed a federal search warrant, occurred this week at Ikon Midstream's Houston headquarters, two of the U.S. sources said. One of the sources said it targeted computers and documents. Reuters was unable to confirm the exact reason for the search or what materials were seized. The raid has not been previously reported.
"On April 14, Homeland Security Investigations executed a criminal search warrant at the offices of IKON MIDSTREAM LLC," a DHS spokesperson said after this story was published. "This is related to an ongoing investigation into criminal activity," the spokesperson said.
The company's attorney, Joseph Slovacek, confirmed that a search warrant was served. He said law enforcement cited earlier Reuters reporting about Ikon Midstream as the reason for the search.
"The warrant was entirely the result of your October 2025 article, and your persistent attempts to have Ikon investigated," Slovacek said in response to a Reuters request for comment sent on Thursday.
"No arrests were made because Ikon had not engaged in any wrongdoing," he added.
Rhett Kenagy, Ikon Midstream's chairman and chief executive, could not be reached for comment.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Mexico's presidency did not respond to requests for comment sent earlier on Thursday. The FBI declined to comment.
The operations of Ikon Midstream were detailed in a 2025 Reuters investigation into the alleged smuggling of fuel into Mexico. That report chronicled, using tanker-tracking data and trade records, how a shipment of diesel exported by Ikon Midstream in March 2025 aboard the tanker Torm Agnes made its way to Mexico. That shipment ended up in the hands of Intanza, a Mexican company suspected of being a front for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), according to three Mexican security sources and a government security document reviewed by Reuters.
Intanza could not be reached for comment. Letters sent to the company by courier could not be delivered, and Intanza has no website, no publicly listed phone number nor any social media presence that Reuters could identify.
Smuggled fuel and stolen crude oil have become the second-largest source of revenue for Mexico's cartels behind narcotics, according to the U.S. government, which has ramped up efforts to crack down on the illicit trade alongside its broader attempt to combat the drug gangs. The Trump administration designated CJNG as a foreign terrorist organization in February 2025.
The October 22 Reuters report revealed how Mexican cartels earn billions of dollars annually by allegedly smuggling fuel mainly from the U.S. to Mexico, helped by U.S. players, some unwitting, others complicit. Import-export paperwork for these transactions is often incomplete or faked by smugglers.
The scheme boils down to a tax dodge: Diesel, gasoline and naphtha are claimed in trade paperwork to be lubricants to avoid the steep import duties that Mexico charges on those imported fuels, Mexican authorities say. The savings can amount to more than half a cargo's value: $7 million in the case of the March 2025 Torm Agnes shipment, according to a Reuters' calculation.
Denmark-based Torm, which manages the vessel, in September 2025 told Reuters that it had stopped doing business with Ikon Midstream in April of that year "based on what has come to light." The company said at the time that it was not responsible for, nor involved in, completing customs paperwork for the shipments.
Following the publication of Reuters' story last year, Mexico's government said that it had expanded investigations into suspected fuel smuggling by unspecified companies and officials, including at three Mexican ports where Ikon Midstream delivered petroleum products in 2025, according to a government report posted to a Senate website in February.
Ikon Midstream repeatedly has denied wrongdoing. It sued Reuters for defamation on November 14 in Texas state court, contending the news agency made "categorically false" statements about its business in the October article. In a separate March 27 statement to Reuters, Ikon Midstream said it "conducted its business lawfully" and "we have never falsified any U.S. or Mexican customs document."
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Posted by Skidmark 2026-05-28 00:00||
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