Permian Basin Oil Heist: 14 Indicted

0:00It's April 22nd. Welcome in. This is Dallas News Today, where local news meets AI. Federal prosecutors just hit 14 people from Texas and New Mexico with indictments for a bold scheme to steal crude oil from the Permian Basin and flip it for cash across state lines. They allegedly tapped into pipelines for major producers in eastern New Mexico, stashed the oil on federal land they leased, then hauled it over the border to sell way under market prices. This goes down in the Permian Basin, America's top oil patch covering West Texas and Southeast New Mexico, where theft like this hits hard on the jit. Operations and pumps up prices for everyone. Prosecutors are calling it a straight up conspiracy for personal gain with defendants including two brothers running a company out of a lecture Texas. Plus a young guy from Seminole and 11 folks from Lovington, New Mexico. Everyone's presumed innocent until proven guilty, facing up to five years on conspiracy counts in 10 years on transport charges, as Fed's tightened the news on basin hustles like this one.