Inside the fuel‑smuggling network that brought down two Mexican Navy officers

Manuel Roberto and Fernando Farías Laguna were high-ranking officers in the Mexican Navy. Although they were brothers, within the Navy, they were referred to as “Los Primos” — The Cousins. This was perhaps because they were nephews by marriage of Rafael Ojeda Durán, who served as secretary of the navy under former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Their connection to such a powerful figure helped propel their rapid rise: despite their youth, Manuel Roberto reached the rank of vice admiral and Fernando became a rear admiral.

Behind the Navy’s polished image, the Farías Laguna brothers were leading a criminal double life. The Mexican Attorney General’s Office accuses them of running a massive fuel‑smuggling network through the very ports they were tasked with securing, in what has perhaps been the largest corruption scandal of López Obrador’s six-year term. After months on the run, Rear Admiral Fernando Farías Laguna was captured on Thursday in Argentina and will be extradited to Mexico. His brother, Vice Admiral Manuel Roberto, has been in prison for months. Both are accused of organized crime and money laundering.

The Farías Laguna corruption scheme came to light after authorities seized the vessel Challenge Procyan off the coast of Tamaulipas in March 2024. The ship was carrying 10 million liters of diesel smuggled from Texas. In Mexico, this type of operation is known as huachicol fiscal: fuel is brought into the country using falsified customs documents and disguised as tax‑exempt products, often lubricating oils. Fuel smuggling is estimated to cost the Mexican treasury about $9.2 billion a year. It is an extremely lucrative illegal business that depends on the complicity of officials at multiple levels of government. After the network was exposed, a rear admiral who had reported the scheme internally and a prosecutor in Colima were allegedly killed.

The Farías Laguna corruption network operated across several customs posts in Mexico, particularly in the ports of Tampico and Altamira in the state of Tamaulipas. According to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, which built its case with testimony from a protected witness known as “Santo,” the brothers controlled the appointment of subordinates in customs offices and paid them substantial bribes, allowing them to maintain full control over the fuel‑smuggling operation.

Their influence stemmed largely from their family ties to Admiral Rafael Ojeda Durán. The former Navy secretary is not under investigation. Following the dismantling of the Los Primos network in September 2024 — during Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration — then attorney general Alejandro Gertz defended Ojeda Durán’s integrity, stating that he himself had approached the authorities to request an investigation into some of the naval officers assigned to custom posts.

The government has not presented evidence to support this version of events. In June 2024, the outlet Aristegui Noticias published an audio recording of a meeting between Rear Admiral Fernando Rubén Guerrero Alcantar and Admiral Rafael Ojeda Durán at Navy headquarters. In the recording, Guerrero Alcantar reports the fuel‑smuggling scheme directly to Ojeda Durán, explicitly naming the secretary’s nephews. Ojeda Durán asks him to prepare a detailed written report listing everyone involved and outlines two possible paths: fully exposing the scheme “no matter who gets hit,” or simply neutralizing those implicated by transferring them to other departments.

In November of that year, Guerrero Alcantar was killed while on vacation in Colima. Prosecutors believe the murder was orchestrated from within the Navy, as Guerrero Alcantar had left the institution a detailed report of his planned itinerary.

Former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador placed deep trust in the integrity of Mexico’s armed forces, which led him to assign them an expanding set of strategic responsibilities beyond security — including control of the country’s customs ports. The Farías Laguna scandal dealt a serious blow to the Navy’s reputation, long seen as more disciplined and less tarnished than the Army, which has faced its own corruption cases and allegations of excessive force and human‑rights abuses.

Vice Admiral Manuel Roberto Farías Laguna was among the first to be arrested, along with other Navy personnel, civilian customs officials, and business figures. He was sent to the high‑security Altiplano prison in the State of Mexico. His defense argues he is being used as a scapegoat and has requested a review of his case. Rear Admiral Fernando Farías Laguna fled Mexico in August 2024, when he flew to Florida and never returned, according to government information. His departure came one month after Rear Admiral Guerrero Alcantar met with Navy Secretary Ojeda Durán to report the corruption scheme. Interpol later issued a red notice for his arrest anywhere in the world.

Fernando Farías Laguna was arrested in Buenos Aires during an Argentine Federal Police operation in the Palermo neighborhood, according to reporting by Mar Centenera. Officers detained him on the street and later released images of the arrest; he was wearing shorts and a T‑shirt. Authorities say he entered Argentina on April 1, 2026, using a false identity — that of a Guatemalan citizen named Luis Lemus Ramos — and had been staying in a short‑term rental apartment in Palermo.

Argentina’s security minister, Alejandra Monteoliva, said that Fernando Farías Laguna entered the country from Colombia. She noted that he is wanted in Mexico on charges of organized crime, fiscal fuel theft, and “attempted homicide of Mexican officials” — an accusation that had not been publicly known in Mexico. Farías Laguna has been placed under the authority of Federal Criminal and Correctional Court No. 12, led by Judge Julián Ercolini, who will oversee Mexico’s extradition request. “He is under arrest and will be extradited. Argentina is not a haven for criminals,” Monteoliva said.

Mexico is now awaiting the statements that the Farías Laguna brothers may provide, and how far up the chain of command the corruption scheme might reach. For now, authorities say, the criminal run of the two Navy officers has come to an end.

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