08/13/2026
🚨 THE CLOVIS FUEL LINE: How the Cartel Network That Murdered Richard Halliday Is Being Fueled by America's Busiest Rail Corridor
Clovis, New Mexico, is not just a railroad town. It is a critical node in the cartel's fuel theft and smuggling infrastructure—the same infrastructure that funded the network that murdered Fort Bliss whistleblower Soldier Richard Halliday.
THE NUMBERS ARE STAGGERING
Railcars are being used to smuggle diesel, gasoline, and naphtha from the U.S. into Mexico, with cartel-linked brokers using false invoices and shell companies to disguise the illicit shipments.
Texas loses an estimated $1 billion a year to organized oil theft in the Permian Basin.
The U.S. government has confirmed that cartels are using railcars to smuggle fuel across the border. FinCEN has warned that fuel is being moved from the U.S. into Mexico through tanker trucks, railcars, and "shadow fleets of maritime vessels."
THE CLOVIS CORRIDOR IS THE FUEL LINE
Clovis is a vital node on the BNSF Railway's Southern Transcon—the busiest freight rail corridor in the United States. Its Belen facility, located on the Clovis Subdivision, is the largest fueling hub in North America, pumping an average of 750,000 gallons of fuel per day—a quarter of BNSF's entire fuel usage—through a single corridor.
This immense volume creates a massive opportunity for theft and smuggling.
The BNSF line through Clovis connects the Permian Basin—America's largest oil-producing region—to refineries and ports across the country. This is the same infrastructure used to move stolen crude from eastern New Mexico across the state line into Texas.
THE JENSEN CONNECTION
BNSF took over the rail line between Clovis and Carlsbad, New Mexico, in 2017. Carlsbad sits in the heart of the Permian Basin, where organized theft groups have stolen tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil.
Maxwell Jensen—a member of the Jensen family indicted for smuggling stolen oil for the CJNG—was documented by the FBI seeking to orchestrate a scheme to store stolen crude oil at a location in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Carlsbad is directly connected to Clovis by the BNSF rail line.
The Jensen family's smuggling operation—which involved $300 million in stolen crude oil and material support to the CJNG cartel—operated in the same eastern New Mexico and West Texas region served by the Clovis rail corridor.
FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT IS TARGETING THE PERMIAN BASIN
The Department of Justice has indicted 14 individuals in a massive oil theft conspiracy spanning Texas and New Mexico. Six defendants have already pleaded guilty.
The FBI's Dallas Field Office described the operation as an "organized theft group responsible for stealing tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil across Texas and New Mexico."
The federal indictment alleges that the conspiracy involved transporting stolen crude oil across the New Mexico-Texas border for resale. The BNSF Clovis Subdivision is a primary rail route for this cross-border movement.
MEXICAN CARTELS ARE TIED TO OILFIELD CRIME IN THE REGION
An organized oilfield crime ring in Carlsbad was reportedly tied to a Mexican cartel and had connections to another series of thefts in Texas totaling an estimated $300 million—the same amount as the Jensen family's smuggling operation.
THE U.S. TREASURY IS TARGETING FUEL SMUGGLING NETWORKS
Treasury's OFAC has sanctioned two Mexican nationals and nine entities tied to a CJNG-linked fuel theft scheme involving cross-border smuggling, falsified customs documents, and shell companies—the same tactics used by the Jensen family. FinCEN has issued alerts warning financial institutions about these schemes.
Clovis, New Mexico, is not just a railroad town. It is a critical node in the cartel's fuel-smuggling infrastructure—the same infrastructure that funded the network that murdered the Fort Bliss whistleblower Soldier Richard Halliday.
The BNSF Clovis Subdivision is the fuel line of the El Paso Cartel Network. And the cartel network is the system that killed a U.S. soldier.
