Illegal immigrants who make it over the southern border into West Texas are working with criminal networks to steal from oilfields in the Permian Basin.
Authorities in West Texas have begun to see illegal immigrants aiding criminal networks in the stealing of truckloads of valuable oil and materials from the nation’s largest, whose district spans 800 miles of the Texas border, organized federal and local law enforcement in the region Friday to come up with a plan of attack as the largest U.S. oilfield, the Permian Basin, continues to get hit by thieves. The matter is not only a border security matter but an energy security problem.
Oil is a major industry in West Texas, making theft something that has begun to affect residents, according to Winkler and Crane County District Attorney Amanda Navarette. Oil tanker trucks are pulling up to storage tanks and siphoning oil from them, then driving away. Other thieves are taking scrap metal and pipes on site, as well as stealing large quantities of water and dirt, to be sold on the black market.
“What I’m trying to do is connect all those local law enforcement agencies with this FBI Task Force that sees the overall picture,” Gonzales said.
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