Senior officials from the past two administrations of Profeco (Federal Consumer Protection Agency) may be involved with three cartels in an extortion scheme targeting gas station owners nationwide.
The Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) opened case file FEMDO/FEITATA-CDMX/0000899/2024, to which La Silla Rota gained access.
The investigation includes former Profeco heads Ricardo Sheffield and David Aguilar Romero, as well as around twenty former federal officials split into two groups: the “Guanajuatenses” and the “Monterrey Group.”
Te podría interesar
Sheffield is currently a senator for Morena, while Romero remained at Profeco until October 30, 2024, but his current whereabouts are unknown.
ALSO READ: U.S. establishes new National Defense Area in Yuma to stop trafficking and migrants
A former close collaborator of Sheffield and later Aguilar Romero, identified as “Pablo,” became a key witness on February 5, 2025, when he testified before Federal Prosecutor María Méndez Speckman.
According to Pablo, within Profeco there is a network of public officials demanding fees from about six thousand gas stations, working in coordination with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, and Guerreros Unidos to enforce the extortion payments.
Business owners who refused to pay the fees, known as “vacunas” (vaccines), were threatened by hitmen or publicly exposed through the segment “Who’s Who in Fuels”, in which former Attorney General Ricardo Sheffield highlighted gas stations accused of overcharging.
Partnership between officials and cartels
“Another collaborator of the Monterrey Group is Sergio Arturo Iturbe, who served as director of the Consumer Defense Office (ODECO) in Guerrero, where he partnered with Guerreros Unidos to move money collected nationwide. He was also in charge of extortion in the Guerrero region,” testified Pablo.
The witness also claimed:
“I know that Ricardo de la Peña Gutiérrez (former General Administration Coordinator) had the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel handle the logistics of collecting the bribes. I know this because Talía del Carmen Vázquez Alatorre (former Deputy Prosecutor for Verification and current Morena lawmaker) told me so directly. She also said that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel provided her protection, and in return, she gave them part of the money collected.”
To verify Pablo’s statements, the FGR requested a judge’s authorization for phone tapping of individuals linked to gas station extortions and interviewed employees at several stations in Mexico City and the State of Mexico.
ALSO READ: ‘El Mayo’ Zambada pleads guilty to drug trafficking charges in US court
The investigation identified three individuals responsible for intimidating and charging gas station owners in Mexico City between 20,000 and 25,000 pesos per month: Arturo N, José de Jesús N, “El Pelón” and Miguel N. They reportedly opposed the Monterrey Group, allegedly led by Cuauhtémoc Villarreal Martínez, Deputy Prosecutor for Verification from 2019 to 2022.
Federal agents confirmed the existence of “vacunas” and that payments varied depending on how many stations each businessman owned.
According to testimony, the fees were recorded in an Excel spreadsheet that was shared directly with Sheffield and later with Aguilar Romero. The payments were made in exchange for advance notice of inspections or to avoid being accused of administrative irregularities that could lead to their fuel pumps being shut down.
Although some Profeco staff were dismissed in 2022 following businessmen’s complaints, the scheme continued, according to FEMDO’s investigation.
“There were constant meetings between Aguilar Romero, De la Peña Gutiérrez and Sheffield. I was at one of them, in September 2023, at Sheffield’s apartment. In that meeting, Aguilar Romero carried a memo to divide the money, since Sheffield was about to begin his pre-campaign for governor of Guanajuato, and they discussed how the money would be distributed,” detailed Pablo.
The FGR holds screenshots of conversations between Pablo and former Attorney General David Aguilar Romero, in which the witness sent him lists of gas stations that complied with the payments.
Sheffield distances himself
Former Profeco head and current senator Ricardo Sheffield, when questioned by La Silla Rota, stated that “he has no knowledge of, nor has he been notified of, any investigation file in which he is mentioned.”
According to the police report SSPC/CONASE/AI/0260/2025, federal agents collected several testimonies confirming the extortion scheme, carried out through intermediaries linked to organized crime.
“During field investigation on January 21, 2024, around 4:30 pm, agents visited the Pemex gas station known as Vía Láctea, in the Central de Abastos area, Iztapalapa, where they interviewed employee José N. He said:
‘In the eight years I’ve worked here, people from Profeco have come to inspect the gas or diesel pumps. They sometimes arrive unexpectedly, sometimes in plain clothes, other times in uniform. About 20 days before this interview, men claiming to be from Profeco showed up. One of them, Arturo N, asked for the station manager, saying he needed to check the pumps to avoid more visits. He threatened that otherwise, he would shut him down and there would be no way to fix it.’”
Gas station owners have denounced multiple extortion and threat schemes in recent years, allegedly carried out by cartels in collusion with Profeco staff. Although an internal investigation in 2022 led to some dismissals, the extortion appears to have continued.
djh