The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic, through its Special Prosecutor’s Office for the Investigation of Crimes Related to Hydrocarbons, has opened a criminal case against the U.S. trading firm Icon Midstream for its alleged involvement in a fuel smuggling ring operating between the United States and Mexico, which is linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Fátima Monterrosa has the story. The case file indicates that, since 2024, the U.S. company Icon Midstream has sold millions of liters of fuel to Mexican companies allegedly tied to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, utilizing tanker vessels for transport.
In April and May 2025, NMás documented that these companies manipulated paperwork to import diesel and gasoline—mislabeling them as bulk oil and lubricant additives or as waste petroleum distillates—in order to evade taxes. The logistical network of this criminal structure has been identified, revealing the involvement of transportation firms, customs agencies, and certain public officials.
NMás presented documents submitted by Icon Midstream to the company Intansa to facilitate the entry of 11 million liters of fuel aboard the vessel Torp Agnes through the ports of Ensenada, Baja California, and Guaymas, Sonora. On April 15, agents from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) executed a search warrant at Icon Midstream’s offices in Houston, Texas—a property owned by Red Kenagi.
The U.S. federal agents seized computers, electronic equipment, and various documents. Icon Midstream shares its legal and corporate address with another fuel trading firm, Heavy Logistic Heavy Transport, located within a commercial building in Houston.
Both companies are currently under investigation in both the United States and Mexico for their alleged involvement in fuel trafficking and money laundering. On its website, Icon Midstream had advertised a fuel sales terminal in Nogales, Sonora. The site consists of an undeveloped lot featuring old storage tanks and pumps used to load tanker trucks—operations conducted without the necessary permits from Mexican authorities.
In this criminal scheme, which had been operating since 2021, participants included Mexican American Roberto Blanco Cantú (also known as Roberto Brown Cantú)—dubbed “the Lord of the Ships”—along with dozens of naval agents (including the Farías Laguna brothers, who are currently detained), as well as various Navy commanders and officials from Mexico’s National Port System Administration (SIPONA).
In September of last year, Mexican authorities arrested legal representatives of Roberto Blanco Cantú’s companies—Mefrafletes and Autolíneas Roca—as well as naval personnel and officials linked to fuel trafficking through the maritime customs offices of Ensenada (Baja California), Guaymas (Sonora), and Tampico and Altamira (Tamaulipas).
On May 17, the Federal Judiciary issued 10 new arrest warrants against “the Lord of the Ships’” smuggling network, following corrections made to the case file by the Attorney General’s Office. These warrants target Roberto Blanco Cantú (or Roberto Brown Cantú) and José Isabel Murguía Santiago—brother of the former mayor of Teuchitlán, Jalisco—as well as customs agents and associates of the companies Mefrafletes, Intanza, and Azteca Cone, on charges of organized crime committed for the purpose of engaging in hydrocarbon-related offenses.
Sources: NMás Cartel Insider Archives
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