Mexico Oil Firm Sees Cartels Behind Abductions

[Jeff Dunsavage]

Workers at several oil and gas installations belonging to state-run Petróleos Mexicanos have been abducted by presumed members of drug cartels in the past few weeks, company officials told the Wall Street Journal.

"Black-market smuggling of oil and gas products in Mexico is a big business," the WSJ article says. "Analysts say Pemex loses close to $1 billion a year in smuggled products, stolen by criminal groups either acting alone or with Pemex employees. 'A few of our workers, at more than one well, have been abducted,' said a high-ranking company official."