Five killed as Mexico hunts boss of fuel theft ring

PUEBLA, Mexico: Mexican security forces killed five suspected members of a fuel theft ring Monday but failed to capture their leader, the target of an escalating manhunt that has left 10 dead since Friday.

Mexico’s marines are hunting Roberto de los Santos de Jesus, alias ‘El Bukanas’, the alleged ringleader of a group accused of oil pipeline thefts, kidnappings and drug trafficking in the central state of Puebla. The shootout ocurred at dawn when security forces descended on what investigators described as a safe house where De los Santos was believed to be hiding in the town of Esperanza.

The marine-led operation ended with five suspected gang members dead, the state prosecutor’s office said on Twitter.

But De los Santos was not among them, a prosecution source said. De los Santos was also the target of a raid on Friday that ended with one marine and four suspected gang members dead in the mountains of Puebla.

Puebla Governor Antonio Gali Fayad called the operation to capture De los Santos a national priority.

“We’re involved in an unprecedented pursuit,” he told journalists.

“We don’t want Puebla, a state with values, to be assaulted by these criminal organisations.”

Gali said at the weekend that De los Santos had ‘escaped into the hills’ after Friday’s operation, but that the security forces now had him surrounded.

Stealing from state oil company Pemex’s pipelines has become a lucrative business for criminals in central Mexico.

The company estimates it has lost some US$2.4 billion as the problem has ballooned in recent years, from 186 pipeline thefts in 2012 to 6,837 last year.