Pump piracy? Mexico's lower prices may trigger illegal transport of gasoline

Jose Gonzalez primarily used to head to Mexico in his black GMC Sierra 1500 pickup truck to visit his girlfriend.

But recent economic changes have given the 36-year-old McAllen resident another reason to cross the border - to buy cheaper Mexican gas.

As the ruta buses and other Reynosans filled their vehicles a Pemex station Tuesday evening along Calle Aldama, many Valley residents also topped off their tanks.

"We're talking about $40," Gonzalez says of how much he claims to save on every tank. "It's a lot of money."

Gas may have become so expensive in the United States that more people find it worthwhile to pay the bridge tolls and buy gas in Mexico. Some have even found it worth to try to illegally smuggle it back.

Skyrocketing fuel prices have pushed scores of Rio Grande Valley residents to cross the border to fill up their vehicle tank with cheaper gas for months.

But last week one Valley resident was cited with trying to illegally bring diesel fuel across the border - raising questions about how people can bring fuel back without breaking the law.

It's not illegal for a U.S. citizen to buy fuel in Mexico and bring it home - as long it's for personal use, said Felix Garza, a local spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In the eyes of the U.S. government, personal use only means the fuel in a tank that fuels the vehicle crossing the border.
The 22-year-old Edinburg man apprehended June 22 at the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge, however, was carrying a 100-gallon tank filled with diesel fuel in the bed of his pickup.

Because the external tank was not fueling his vehicle, U.S. Customs agents could only assume the fuel was for commercial use, even if it might have been for his own use. That assumption throws such transport into a different category beyond the scope of simply filling up your car with cheap Mexican gas.

The Edinburg man, whose name was not released, was fined $400 - the fuel's approxiamate value.

Garza said the man's fuel transport would have been legal had the external tank been hooked up to the truck's primary fuel source.

Worth the drive?

Mexican gasoline and diesel fuel prices are subsidized and controlled by that nation's government.

"When the gas was lower in the States, we went there to buy gas," said Eduardo Echeverría Porras, 46, as he waited to fill his tank. "The difference now is the Mexican government."

That subsidy means the price of regular unleaded in Mexico has sat at about $2.70 per gallon and diesel as low as $2.20 per gallon for months.

So many U.S. residents have crossed to buy fuel in record numbers in Baja California - the Mexican state just south of California - that fuel shortages have been reported there in the past month, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.

The cost to drive from most Valley cities to Mexico for gas could actually eat into any savings of buying fuel there, particularly in a small vehicle

.
In a larger vehicle, it could be a different story.

If a person drove from McAllen to Reynosa just to buy gas, that person would face about a 30 mile round-trip drive, plus about $5 in round trip bridge tolls. Say that person drove a 2004 Ford F-150 - which averages 13 miles per gallon - it would take 2.3 gallons of gas just for the trip to the border and back.

And if that motorist gets caught in bridge traffic, an average vehicle burns about one gallon of gas per hour when it idles, according to The Associated Press.

But considering that it would cost $102.70 to fill up that tank if gas costs $3.95 per gallon in the U.S., that motorist would still save about $20 per tank with the Mexican prices.

A growing trend?

The smuggling attempt in Hidalgo was one of only two times in the Valley that Customs agents have caught anyone trying to illegally bring fuel from Mexico, Garza said.

"I really couldn't answer any way whether it could continue or what would continue to happen," he said.

Customs agents could be on the watch for people who may try to illegally smuggle fuel by making repeated trips beyond what a normal traveler could bring as "personal use," Garza said.

For instance, if an agent sees that a person has crossed five times in a week to buy gas in Mexico, that would raise suspicion.
Of course, they would only be able to track that if motorists actually tell the truth when they bring gas back, Garza said.

"We're not telling them that they cannot go fuel up in Mexico," he said. "What we're telling them is that if you come back with a commercial use amount of fuel that you must declare it."
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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.