Five men and a woman have pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal thousands of barrels of crude oil from Permian Basin producers and often selling it to other defendants in the conspiracy for a fraction of its value, according to U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould for the Northern District of Texas.
The six defendants were part of a broader federal case involving 14 individuals accused of stealing Permian Basin crude and transporting it across the New Mexico-Texas border for resale, according to filings.
A seventh defendant has admitted in filed plea papers to participating in the conspiracy and has an arraignment scheduled for Aug. 3.
The prosecutions follow reports that oil theft has become increasingly organized in Texas, particularly in the Permian Basin, which produced nearly half of U.S. crude, making it the nation’s dominant oil-producing region.
Forty-one percent of executives said their operations had been affected by theft in the oil field over the past year, according to a September 2025 Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas survey of 80 exploration and production firms.
Among those affected, 61 percent reported stolen crude oil, making crude the most frequently reported target, slightly ahead of valves, piping and wiring at 58 percent, followed by equipment at 39 percent.
The Texas Legislature last session considered the problem serious enough to establish a special oilfield theft prevention unit within DPS to protect oilfield assets and a State Task Force on Petroleum Theft, known as STOPTHEFT, under the direction of the Texas Railroad Commission.
STOPTHEFT, comprised of industry and law enforcement officials appointed by the Railroad Commission, has been charged with connecting oil-company loss records with cases scattered among county sheriffs, DPS and the FBI. The task force’s first report has been scheduled to be released Dec. 1, with recommendations for the 2027 Texas legislative session.
In the most recent federal charges, Gyardo Gonzalez, 47, Mario Mendoza, 40, and Miguel A. Soto, 41, of Lovington, New Mexico; along with Diana Marquez Rojo, 47, and Jesus Martin Hernandez-Borja, of Hobbs, New Mexico; and Luis Rojo, 51, of Seminole, Texas; pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to steal crude oil.
The five male defendants face up to five years in federal prison. Diana Marquez Rojo faces up to three years in federal prison. The defendants also face a $250,000 fine, restitution to victims of the theft and forfeiture. The court has not yet set sentencing dates.
A seventh defendant, Tavares Montrail Cole, 49, has admitted in filed plea papers to participating in the conspiracy, with a scheduled arraignment for Aug. 3.
The defendants admitted to stealing thousands of barrels of crude oil from producers in Eastern New Mexico and selling it to Louis George Edgett, 69, of Lovington, New Mexico, and Brenden Floyd Strickland, 26, of Hobbs, New Mexico, who are also charged in the case.
The defendants further admitted that Edgett and Strickland purchased the stolen crude oil significantly below West Texas Intermediate market prices.
According to their pleas, one conspirator sold 10,975 barrels of stolen crude oil to Edgett and Strickland between June 2022 and July 2024. That oil had an approximate fair market value of $888,975, but Edgett and Strickland paid only $15 per barrel, for a total of $164,625.
Another conspirator sold 9,090 barrels of stolen crude oil to Edgett and Strickland between January and June 2024. That oil had a market value of $724,200.30, but Edgett and Strickland paid about $136,350, or $15 per barrel.
Another conspirator admitted in plea papers that the crude oil he stole was valued at up to $1.5 million.
West Texas Intermediate crude can fluctuate widely, but it has generally traded between $66 and $93 per barrel over the past three years. WTI is the benchmark used to price crude oil in the Permian Basin and much of the United States
Federal filings also indicated that James Darrell Reid, 65, and Randell Reid, 41, both of Electra, Texas, also charged in the case, purchased the stolen oil from Edgett and Strickland at prices significantly below market value and transported it across the New Mexico-Texas state line to their business in Seminole, Texas. The Reids then sold the stolen crude oil to midstream buyers below WTI pricing.
The remaining seven defendants, who were also indicted in the oil theft conspiracy, some of whom are charged with transporting stolen property in interstate commerce, face prison terms ranging from five years to 65 years and millions of dollars in fines.
“Oil theft is not a victimless crime. Every barrel stolen weakens our energy infrastructure and threatens our energy security. The defendants placed personal profits and greed over the pocketbooks of Texans,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould in a written statement. “My office is committed to continuing to investigate and prosecute these fuel theft schemes.”
“In collaboration with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners, we were able to disrupt an organized theft group responsible for stealing tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil across Texas and New Mexico,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock in a written statement. “The FBI will continue to work with our partners to combat the large-scale theft and distribution of stolen goods.”
Law enforcement officials have said that the Permian Basin’s extraordinary size, stretching across 43 counties in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico — 250 miles wide and 300 miles long — has made it difficult to safeguard.
Oil field operators must secure thousands of isolated wells, tank batteries, pipelines and storage locations scattered across an area comparable to the size of Nebraska.
The Permian Basin pumped about 6.8 million barrels of crude oil per day in June — about 49 percent of total U.S. crude production, which averaged a record 13.8 million barrels per day.