On June 30 the U.S. Treasury put Oscar Guillermo Juraidini Silva and several shipping companies he managed on the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions list, calling them part of a fuel-tax fraud network, known in Mexico as fiscal huachicol, run for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Days later, an investigation by Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) put a name to a different problem: his sister has a senior job at the customs office his fuel moved through.
Analee de Jesús Juraidini Silva has held several key posts at the Matamoros customs office since 2019, according to MCCI. One was director of procedures and legal affairs. The report says she continues to work there, undisturbed, based on official documents. Matamoros is described as the national epicenter of fuel smuggling in Mexico.
The same desk
She was not the first person to hold that job. Carlos Eugenio Benítez Orta had it until 2022, when it passed to Juraidini’s sister. He oversaw the customs supervisors in Matamoros. He was later arrested in Texas on charges of helping smuggle illegal fuel across the border, and he is now held at El Altiplano prison in Mexico.
The scheme, as described, was simple. U.S. fuel was declared as lubricant to dodge taxes, to the benefit of the CJNG. Her brother, the report says, trafficked millions of liters of stolen fuel through the Matamoros office in recent years.
“Years ago it was an open secret,” the account says. It argues that this case is now proof that the cartel has infiltrated customs in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.
What Treasury said
The Treasury statement described Juraidini as one of organized crime’s most important financial operators. It also said Mexican cartels use money from fuel-tax fraud to finance political campaigns, to buy the loyalty of corrupt politicians, and to win drug routes or place associates in federal agencies.
The reporting does not say whether Mexican authorities have acted against his sister, and it carries no response from her. The claims about the customs office come from MCCI and the outlets repeating its findings.
Sources
- From Fuel Theft to Customs: Family Link Revealed to Operator Sanctioned by the US
- From Fuel Theft to Customs: Family Link Revealed to Operator Sanctioned by the US
