Death Altar Discovered inside Oil Theft Tunnel in Hidalgo

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat

An altar for Santa Muerte and another for baphomet were discovered inside a cartel-associate gasoline theft tunnel in the state of Hidalgo.

The Oil Theft Tunnel

State police officers, agents from the state Attorney General’s Office (FGE), and soldiers gathered in Cuautepec de Hinojosa municipality, in the state of Hidalgo. A total of 378 of them were preparing for a major operation in which they planned to raid 8 properties of suspected cartel fuel thieves, simultaneously.

The locations had to be hit at the same time because it was believed there were tunnels connecting some of the properties together. If the men inside heard police coming for them, they might sneak into a tunnel and escape out of a different property, so raiding them at the same moment was essential to the success of the mission. 

The properties were spread out between several towns which included Tezoquipa, Francisco I. Madero, Almoloya and Texcaltepec, according to La Jornada.

The raid began and the arrests started as personnel ran into oil thieves on the property. The workers had drilled holes into nearby fuel pipelines and were siphoning off gasoline from the outflow. This is a criminal enterprise which occurs quite commonly across the country of Mexico, anywhere that oil pipelines exist.

In some of the properties, they found entrances to the major tunnel, which sunk 4.37 yards (4 meters) below ground. The tunnel extended 27 yards (25 meters) long. 

As authorities made their way through the tunnel, they discovered two different intake holes on the oil pipelines. These two intakes had managed to siphon off 10,038 gallons (38,000 liters) of gasoline.

Images of the altars show two main statues. One was a state of baphomet, a half-goat, half-human figure associated with occultism, who is featured heavily in the writings of Éliphas Lévi and Aleister Crowley. In Mexico, baphomet is more likely to be associated with Belcebú, a generic term for the devil.

At the statue's feet, a lycanthrope-like figure was placed. A better view of this statue is not available.

The other main state is of Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, whose relevance and meaning within Mexico is covered in this previous article by Huaso. 

Various food and drink offerings are seen at the feet of the statues. CO Futures writes “the food and drink offerings at the shrine included bottles of coke and cans of beer along with glasses, meats, tortillas, peppers, and a onion and cactus pads dish.”

A total of 10 men were found to be on the properties or in the tunnel, working on the gas theft operation. All ten men were arrested however their names have not been released as of the writing of this story. 

Two kilos of marijuana and 200 doses of synthetic narcotics were seized from the men’s possession. A total of 12 cars and 3 motorcycles were also seized

There are three different local cartel leaders thought to be involved in oil theft. (For citations for this, please see The Silent State) They are:

José Gerardo Olmedo Arista, alias “El Cochiloco”

Cirilo Lira Gutiérrez, alias “Don Lupe”

Gabriel Rodríguez Hernández, alias “El Gabo”

Any of these three men could have been leading this gasoline theft group.

Sources: TeleDiario, El Universal, La Jornada, El Financiero, Univision, Vanguardia, LatinUS, TV Azteca , Pamela & Robert Bunker for CO Futures