Oliver Griffin

BOGOTA (Reuters). – As criminal gangs try to replace dwindling supplies smuggled Venezuelan petrol for the drug trade, theft from Colombian oil pipelines is rising. Data Reuters received from Cenit and other tax authorities shows this.

While gasoline is an essential component of making cocaine, there has been a shortage in Venezuela due to Venezuela’s economic and social crisis. Colombian criminal gangs are now tapping into pipelines to obtain more crude oil, which will be refined later. Colombian crime gangs are also sending some of that artisanal oil to Venezuela. It is an inverse of historical smuggling patterns.

Yessica Prieto is the project and investigation director for Crudo Transparente in Colombia. It’s the Colombian mafias or criminals who steal Colombian crude oil, refine it illegally, obviously artisanally, and then cross the border into Venezuela.

According to data from Cenit, the pipeline operator and a subsidiary company of Ecopetrol (the majority-owned state-owned oil firm in Colombia), crude theft in Colombia reached a minimum six-year peak in the first half 2021.

Police and analysts stated that the stolen oil is transformed into an ad-hoc gasoline called “pategrillo” (or “cricket’s foot”) and used for cocaine production.

Cenit reported that Colombia was stealing on average 3.299 barrels of crude oil per day from June 30-2016, up from 1.796 barrels per daily in 2016.

Oil theft in Colombia has increased five times since 2020. This is compared to the average daily oil theft of 2,744 barrels per day.

Oil theft has increased, but the amount of gasoline seized under suspicion that it is being smuggled has declined sharply, according to DIAN tax data seen by Reuters.

In 2017, authorities arrested a record 694,894 gallons fuel in five provinces bordering Venezuela.

DIAN reports that this number dropped to 107.616 gallons for 2020. Just 18,484 fuel gallons were found in 2021’s first half.

DIAN said that the DIAN had attributed the drop in contraband fuel mainly to Venezuelan turmoil. Oil production has dropped sharply and oil refining has also fallen. The DIAN also cited the effectiveness of anti-smuggling legislation.

Venezuela’s economic crises “has driven Venezuela to Venezuela”, the DIAN wrote in an email.

Oil theft is concentrated along the Cano Limon–Covenas pipeline. In the first half 2021, 2,430 barrels were stolen daily.

Cenit reported that 2 088 barrels were stolen daily from the pipeline each day in 2020.

Once the crude has been refined, it is made into coca paste. It’s a precursor of cocaine. The coca leaves are combined with gasoline in order to obtain certain plant compounds. One kilo requires a lot of fuel.

Colombia’s police stated that Venezuelan fuel may be also sent or used at illegal mining sites.

“The principal use is to processed plant compounds during cocaine manufacturing,” said Brigadier General Jesus Alejandro Barrera of Colombia’s rural Police.

“Once criminal groups realized that gasoline could not be brought directly from Venezuela they decided to use pategrillo for the ingredients.

According to Sandra Milena Orozco, Cenit’s vice president of pipelines and Cenit, the cost to repair damage caused to Cano Limon – Covenas by illegal valves – which were used to steal oil – as well as bombings by left-wing ELN guerrillas was 42 billion pesos (nearly $11 million) in 2020.