‘La Barredora,’ A Criminal Group Led by Hernán Bermúdez, Did Business with the Mayan Train: MCCI

The Mayan Train opened a vein of business for the criminal group “La Barredora,” which—according to military intelligence reports—was headed by Hernán Bermúdez Requena, the former Secretary of Public Security of Tabasco during the governorship of Adán Augusto López, currently a senator for the Morena political party (National Autonomous University of Mexico). In conversations intercepted by the Ministry of National Security (Sedena), the criminals confessed plans to lease land and supply 180,000 liters of fuel oil per week for the train construction project, whose sections 4 and 5 were coordinated by a nephew of Bermúdez Requena.

The construction of the Maya Train, one of the flagship projects of the López Obrador administration, opened a new avenue of business for the criminal group “La Barredora,” according to conversations intercepted by the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena).

Military intelligence reports reviewed by Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) detail plans by members of “La Barredora” to supply 180,000 liters of stolen fuel per week in Tabasco for the construction of the Maya Train in the Campeche section and to lease 9 hectares of land in Quintana Roo to the federal government for the same project.

The military reports mention that one of the leaders of “La Barredora” was Hernán Bermúdez Requena, who in December 2019 was appointed Secretary of Public Security of Tabasco by the then governor of that state, Adán Augusto López Hernández, currently a senator for Morena.

Raúl Bermúdez Arreola, Bermúdez Requena’s nephew, served as head of sections 4 and 5 of the Maya Train and was removed from his position due to corruption allegations.

Bermúdez Requena fled the country in February 2025 after an arrest warrant was issued for his ties to this criminal group, linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Interpol issued an international wanted notice.

On July 14, MCCI revealed that “La Barredora” was involved in stealing fuel from ships docking at the port of Dos Bocas, Tabasco, where the Olmeca refinery was built, another flagship project of AMLO’s six-year term.

Now, new documents reveal that the perpetrators of the ship robbery in Dos Bocas are the same ones seeking to ship fuel theft to the Maya Train construction site.

A report from the Southeast Regional Intelligence Fusion Center (Cerfi), corresponding to October 2021, details that there was interest in supplying the train construction site with 180,000 liters of diesel trafficked from the United States per week, which had arrived through Tabasco.

The report details the intercepted conversations with members of the criminal group, including a financial operator who negotiated the purchase and distribution of fuel theft in Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Guanajuato, Campeche, and Tabasco.

In one conversation, a man identified as Gabriel offered the financial operator diesel extracted from the port of Dos Bocas “at 16.50 pesos per liter, without an invoice.” In another intercepted communication, the same operator reported that “he had 300 USLD (ultra-low sulfur) diesel tankers at 14.50 pesos per liter, which the SAT was selling, but they had to pay a 25 percent deposit.”

The military report describes another conversation in which a trafficker identified as “HNI” confided to the financial operator of “La Barredora” that “they also wanted to know if they could supply 180,000 liters per week to Campeche for the Maya Train.”

In response, the operator said that “at the moment, he has no one to deliver near Escárcega, Campeche” (one of the towns through which the Maya Train passes), but that the problem would be resolved in the coming days and announced that he would invoice “the entire production” with a company in Tabasco.

Another report mentions negotiations to sell 30,000 liters of illegally sourced diesel to a train supplier.

Real Estate Lease for the Train

In two other military reports from January and February 2022, also from the Southeast Regional Intelligence Fusion Center, it is noted that the ex-wife of a member of “La Barredora” was seeking to benefit from the rental of land for the Maya Train project.

As a result of monitoring a plaza boss in Tabasco identified as “JJ,” the military intercepted calls with one of his main operators, named “Chua.”

In one of those calls, “Chua proposed to JJ that he invest in a process and lease nine hectares in Quintana Roo (owned by Vanesa, Chua’s ex-wife) to the federal government, where they are carrying out the Maya Train project, for which he would receive 700,000 pesos per hectare per month,” two military intelligence reports detail.

Both reports include organizational charts showing, by name and even a photograph, the former Secretary of Security of Tabasco at the head of a network of ties to the criminal group.

At the time these reports were prepared, Adán Augusto López had already left the governorship of Tabasco and was serving as Secretary of the Interior in the López Obrador administration. His replacement, Carlos Merino Campos, kept Hernán Bermúdez Requena as Secretary of Security, despite allegations of his ties to fuel traffickers.

Merino Campos is currently the director of Airports and Auxiliary Services, the agency responsible for managing 60 airport fuel stations.

On March 15, 2022, Cerfi Sureste prepared a new report in which an unidentified person informed “Chua” that the head of Fonatur in Tabasco “will only supervise from Boca del Cerro, Tabasco, to Escárcega, Campeche, and there will be no way for him to help them in Quintana Roo,” in apparent reference to the 9 hectares he was seeking to lease for the Mayan Train.

The same report states that “Chua” told his unidentified interlocutor that “the person in charge of the Mayan Train project is Javier May Rodríguez (general director of the Tourism Development Fund) and they would have to seek a meeting with him.”

Javier May left his position at Fonatur and the coordination of the Mayan Train in September 2023 and is currently the governor of Tabasco.

On November 13, 2024, after just completing a month as governor of Tabasco, Javier May accused Hernán Bermúdez Requena, Secretary of Security in the government of Adán Augusto López, of having been the leader of the criminal group “La Barredora.”

“Everyone knows, it was common knowledge here who commanded ‘La Barredora.’ Or don’t we know?” May questioned in a press conference in which he said that previous state governments—referring to Adán Augusto—would have to explain whether there was official complicity.

Two years earlier, on October 5, 2022, MCCI published military intelligence reports naming Bermúdez Requena and two of his collaborators as accomplices of “La Barredora.”

However, the military intelligence reports linking him to criminal groups date back to November 2019, one month before he was appointed to the position by then-Governor Adan Augusto López.

Source: Aristegui Noticias