Retired Mexican general to be extradited in gastheft case: judge

The B.C. Supreme Court has ruled a retired Mexican general will be extradited to his home country in or‐ der to face charges that he covered up gas theft by or‐ ganized criminal groups.

Gen. Eduardo Leon Trauwitz's case has been in front of B.C. judges since De‐ cember 2021 after the at‐ torney general of Canada, on behalf of the Mexican gov‐ ernment, applied to have him extradited.

Trauwitz faces decades in jail in his home country if convicted, with Mexican pros‐ ecutors alleging he turned a blind eye to gas theft being conducted from pipelines owned by a state-run com‐ pany via illegal gas taps.

The retired general was the head of security for

Petroleos Mexicanos, com‐ monly known as Pemex, for five years. He fled Mexico be‐ fore a scheduled court date in May 2019 and has been living in Canada ever since, according to a previous court ruling.

B.C. Supreme Court Jus‐ tice Heather Holmes found the attorney general had pre‐ sented enough evidence to show that the allegations against Trauwitz would have merited a trial in Canada had they occurred here.

"Mr. Trauwitz is alleged to have implemented an unau‐ thorized protocol by which the personnel under his di‐ rection were no longer to re‐ port the clandestine taps they found in Pemex energy pipelines," Holmes wrote in a decision released last week.

"It is alleged that under the unauthorized protocol, security personnel who found the taps were to dis‐ able the taps themselves, and to make no report out‐ side Mr. Trauwitz's depart‐ ment," she added.

While none of the allega‐ tions against Trauwitz have been proven in court, Holmes said there was evi‐ dence, on each element of the case against him, that could have led a jury to con‐ vict him.

The judge said Trauwitz's alleged conduct would have merited a charge of breach of trust by a public official if they happened in Canada.

Losses estimated in bil‐ lions of dollars

Pemex has estimated that the fuel it lost to violent crim‐ inal gangs between 2016 and 2019 was worth more than 146 billion pesos - or about $15 billion today.

The fuel thefts have also led to gas shortages and they've been blamed for pipeline explosions that have killed dozens of people.

Trauwitz headed the state-run oil monopoly's se‐ curity division from April 2014 until July 2018, when he resigned from his post. His department was responsible for identifying clandestine gas taps.

Holmes found that, de‐ spite Trauwitz's arguments to the contrary, there was an abundance of evidence showing his division's proto‐ cols toward clandestine gas taps deviated from Pemex norms.

"Considered as a whole, the evidence could reason‐ ably support an inference that Mr. Trauwitz approved, directed, or otherwise used his position to advance the new protocol," she wrote.

Trauwitz argued that, at most, the evidence gave rise to a "web of suspicions" against him - but not a rea‐ sonable inference that he acted with a dishonest pur‐ pose.

While the judge agreed that there was little evidence that he received a personal benefit from the lax security protocols, she also said there was evidence he acted with a corrupt purpose that was not for the public good.

Holmes did not list the next steps in the case in her judgment.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department said that Trauwitz's extradition will now proceed to the "ministe‐ rial phase," which involves the justice minister deciding whether he will be surren‐ dered to the requesting state.

"The Extradition Act sets out a series of mandatory and discretionary grounds for refusal to surrender," the spokesperson wrote. "The minister also takes into con‐ sideration any submissions made by the person sought for extradition, with respect to why they believe their sur‐ render should not be or‐ dered."

The spokesperson added that extradition proceedings can often be complex and take longer periods of time to complete, and that Trauwitz's extradition hearing was conducted in accordance with the Charter.