Originally from Utah/Cartel buddies: The Jensens: The US family that smuggled 2,900 shipments of crude oil from Mexico
https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-09-15/the-jensens-the-us-family-that-smuggled-2900-shipments-of-crude-oil-from-mexico-to-texas.html
The Jensens: The US family that smuggled 2,900 shipments of crude oil from Mexico to Texas
Washington accuses tycoon James Jensen and his family of disguising multimillion-dollar shipments of fuel stolen from Pemex with the help of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel
ZEDRYK RAZIEL
Mexico - SEP 15, 2025 - 05:42 EDT
Over the course of three years, a U.S. family the Jensens illegally smuggled 2,881 shipments of crude oil from Mexico, disguising it as other substances to evade the appropriate customs duties. To sustain their illegal enterprise, which earned them $300 million, the Jensens received assistance from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), to which they paid a fee. In Mexico, what the Jensens did is known as huachicol fiscal or fuel tax evasion.
The family, originally from the state of Utah, consists of James Lael Jensen, the 68-year-old patriarch, considered a petroleum magnate in the United States; his wife, Kelly Anne; and their two sons, Maxwell Max Sterling, and Zachary Golden. All are charged by U.S. prosecutors with conspiracy to launder money and smuggle goods using false declarations.
Court documents indicate that the operation involved bringing crude oil through customs while declaring it as waste oil, in violation of the Tariff Act. The oil was then transported to containers owned by the family company, Arroyo Terminals LLC, located in Rio Hondo, Texas.
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