Andrés Manuel López Huachicol

The math was simple, but brutal. Each ship carried its own payoff. About MXN 1.75 million—roughly USD $80,000 to USD $90,000—for one green light. A slice went to the middlemen, crumbs of MXN 330,000. The lion’s share—MXN 1.42 million—climbed the ladder to the brothers and their allies in command.

Between April 2024 and January 2025, fourteen ships glided through Tampico under this system. Fourteen passes. Twenty-four million pesos in bribes. And that was just a warm-up.

The real scale dwarfed it. At least sixty-nine confirmed shipments. More than 564 million liters of fuel smuggled. By conservative estimates, the network raked in over $150 million pesos siphoned off in less than two years. Fuel stolen, taxes dodged, bribes pocketed. An entire shadow economy built in naval ports, under military insignias, under the flag that was supposed to guard the nation’s coasts.

Then deaths began stacking up like bodies in a narco war. Captain Abraham Pérez Ramírez—suicide, they said, after bribe money came to light. Captain Adrián del Ángel Zúñiga—“training accident.” His replacement, Captain Sergio Martínez Covarrubias—kidnapped and executed in Manzanillo. Rear Admiral Fernando Rubén Guerrero Alcántar—assassinated after daring to denounce the fuel rings. Each man silenced before he could testify. Each one a page torn out of the investigation. There are at least 5 cases confirmed. 

AMLO’s myth—that he’d stamped out corruption where others failed—lay in ashes. Headlines openly mocked his slogans. Billions gone, loyalties bought, officers dead. The story flipped. The leftist narrative shattered. AMLO's legacy has been forever destroyed.

The rot isn't confined to admirals and pipelines. It seeped into the family.

Reporters traced Pemex appointments back to AMLO’s son, Andrés “Andy” López Beltrán. Childhood friends in cushy jobs. Abraham David Alipi Mena—Andy’s buddy—landed a golden chair at Pemex Exploración y Producción, the richest division of the company. From there, he moved to CENAGAS, managing billions in natural gas. Another relative, José Eduardo Beltrán Hernández, “El Chelal,” used his board seat to steer contracts. Pemex, critics said, was turning into a family enterprise.

Deeper still, Andy's alleged ties to "La Barredora," a CJNG-affiliated huachicol gang in Tabasco, intertwined with campaign financing schemes. U.S. probes linked him to Sergio Carmona Angulo, the slain "Rey del Huachicol," whose fuel smuggling empire reportedly funneled millions into Morena's coffers during AMLO's rise. Senator Adán Augusto López Hernández, Tabasco's former governor and AMLO insider, appointed Hernán Bermúdez Requena—La Barredora's leader—as state security chief, enabling the group's operations, including attempts to sell stolen fuel for the Tren Maya project. Andy's proximity to this network sparked accusations of indirect campaign boosts, with Carmona's assassination in 2021 only amplifying suspicions of a deadly cover-up

Then came Annex. A glossy real-estate startup listing luxury rentals in Seattle, Mexico City, Venice Beach and Tokyo. Andy was spotted at the Tokyo launch in July 2025, champagne glass in hand. Annex belongs to Diego Jiménez Labora, a festival businessman and Andy’s “intimate friend.” Labora had banked fat government contracts—like a $10 million Mexico City concert in 2018—and scandals: safety lapses, two dead photojournalists, whispered ties to AMLO’s clan. Now, his company was flipping luxury pads abroad while wining and dining with the president’s son.

On paper, everything is legal. In reality,  Andy reeks of money pipelines wider than Pemex’s.

Claudia Sheinbaum ascended as AMLO's heir, but her throne feels increasingly solitary amid Morena's fractures and corruption's fallout. As detailed in prior analysis in this website, she's unsupported by key governors, legislators, and party elders—internal rifts where veterans clash with newcomers, and figures like Deputy Ricardo Monreal ally with opposition in local votes, undermining her agenda. Governors like Sinaloa's Rubén Rocha and Tamaulipas' Américo Villarreal face cartel collusion rumors, defying central directives much like U.S. governors buck federal policy. Marginalized allies, such as labor leader Susana Prieto, resign amid gender-based exclusion, highlighting Sheinbaum's inability to rally the base. Yet Sheinbaum doubles down as enabler, publicly defending accused figures while her isolation deepens. 

She praised Navy chief Rafael Ojeda's anti-corruption rhetoric despite the huachicol scandal implicating his institution, calling it a "central part of the transformation." She pushed back on U.S. accusations of cartel control, suing a U.S. attorney over "narco-political" claims, even as Trump-era pressures mounted. She addressed Pemex corruption arrests, vowing justice, but shielded AMLO's legacy amid probes into his inner circle. Contradictions abound: She defended Morena politicians like Adán Augusto López against U.S. huachicol probes, yet governors ignore her security and anti-nepotism initiatives, prioritizing local pacts. Legislators such as Monreal block reforms, allying with foes, while Sheinbaum condemns sovereignty violations in cartel negotiations—isolated even internationally, as drug lords bypass her for U.S. deals.

Two scandals dwarf Mexico's storied corruption lore: SEGALMEX and the Navy-led huachicol saga, both under AMLO, eclipsing even Odebrecht's $788 million in bribes or La Estafa Maestra's $400 million siphon. SEGALMEX, meant to ensure food security, hemorrhaged 15,750 million pesos ($785 million USD) in fraud, with diversions reaching 27,000 million pesos ($1.35 billion USD) in property damage. By 2024, 69 complaints targeted 87 individuals, yielding 26 arrests; AMLO called it his presidency's "stain." This stolen sum could have built 1,500 schools or funded healthcare for 5 million Mexicans annually—enough to eradicate child hunger in rural states.

The huachicol drama outscales it: Under AMLO, fuel theft cost Pemex 500 billion pesos ($24.5 billion USD), with 2024-2025 seizures alone hitting 27 million liters, evading 1 billion pesos per shipment in taxes. Navy complicity amplified losses to $3.8 billion in five years, far surpassing Pemex's Odebrecht-era $1.3 million graft or the $1.3 billion in ex-presidents' scandals. This haul could have paved 10,000 kilometers of highways or provided universal scholarships for 20 million students—lifelines lost to greed, leaving Mexico's poor footing the bill.

AMLO's era, once a beacon of leftist renewal, ends in the muck of huachicol and SEGALMEX, institutions rotten from the top. Andy's entanglements and Sheinbaum's lonely defenses expose a system where power protects the powerful, eroding trust in Morena and the military. Mexico's path forward demands accountability, not alibis—lest corruption's pipeline keep draining the nation's future.