Intelligence agencies detected that Colombian irregular groups based on the border axis presumably supply themselves with fuel produced in clandestine refineries.
According to consulted sources, it is about the so-called Tancol (armed terrorists, Colombian drug traffickers), who have demanded the consumption of fuel from their collaborators both in Zulia and Anzoátegui, for example.
In the Soledad area, Independencia municipality, bordering Anzoátegui and Bolívar, a tancol group operates, specifically in the La Piña sector.
From that point, the subjects receive drug shipments from Colombia to later be sent by river to the Caribbean islands using the Orinoco River.
And that is where the supply of fuel provided mostly by Venezuelans comes into play. In this case, the fuel is acquired through influence peddling or the purchase of quotas, as was revealed by the Public Ministry last January when announcing the arrest of the mayor of Soledad, Carlos Vidal, and the commander of the Bolivarian National Guard in that population, among others.
In the case of Zulia, fuel suppliers to tancol groups have built small clandestine refineries in adjacent or internal areas to state oil facilities.
This is the case of four clandestine fuel production centers detected in recent days in the Mara municipality (San Rafael de El Moján).
One of these infrastructures was located at the Gas Mara plant, where the GNB recovered 1,320 liters of diesel, 220 liters of gasoline, 440 liters of crude oil and two storage tanks with a capacity of 350 liters each.
The other clandestine laboratory was located in the Petro-Urdaneta facilities, which is in the El Cují sector of the aforementioned Zulia municipality.
In that location they seized 1,100 liters of crude oil and five plastic containers with a capacity of 220 liters (empty).
other two
Recently, two other clandestine refineries were discovered in the Mara municipality. One of them in the Luis de Vicente sector, where they retained 8 plastic containers with a capacity of 220 liters of artisanal gasoline, for a total of 1,760.
The other premises were located in the La Sierrita sector of the aforementioned municipality. There they located 5 plastic containers with a capacity of 220 liters of artisanal diesel, for a total of 1,100 liters, three iron crude storage tanks, with a capacity of 150 liters and 15 meters of pipe used as connections between the tanks.
They presume that PDVSA personnel participated in the elaboration of these clandestine centers. So far no one has been arrested.
