Utah Oil Family Are First US Citizens to Face Terrorism Support Charges in CJNG Fuel Theft Scheme Worth $300 Million

“Socalj” for Borderland Beat

A wealthy Utah family between May 2022 and March 2025, managed to cross into the United States some $300 million in crude oil, and they managed to launder at least $47 million of it for CJNG linked businesses.

They now face an additional charge: providing material support to a terrorist organization.

The Jensens face charges including material support to a foreign terrorist organization, fuel trafficking, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted, they could face up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $530 million.

The CJNG was designated on February 20, 2025 as a FTO Foreign Terrorist Organization. The new charge of providing material support to a terrorist group means that the Jensen family knew they were doing business with CJNG connected companies and figures. Between February and April, when they were arrested the authorities have evidence showing that they knew of the terrorist designations and still knowingly did business with them.

The recently filed superseding indictment mentions the timing of James Lael Jensen and Maxwell Sterling Jensen knowingly doing business with the cartel FTO as being between April 15 and April 23, when they were arrested in Utah.

Stolen oil is big business for Mexican drug cartels.

“Fuel theft, colloquially referred to in Mexico as huachicol, is the most significant non-drug revenue source for Mexican cartels and other illicit actors,” according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

In Tamaulipas, the Gulf Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel work together to steal crude oil from PEMEX, according to the Treasury Department, and ship the stolen oil across the border.

“The stolen crude oil is then delivered to complicit U.S. importers in the oil and natural gas industry operating near the U.S. southwest border,” according to the Treasury Department, “who sell it at a steep discount on the U.S. and global energy markets before repatriating the significant illicit profits back to the cartels in Mexico.”

The crude oil was stolen from Pemex in Mexico, namely in Tamaulipas, labeled as used oil or other byproducts to evade customs and taxes. The oil was then transported to the US and subsequently sold to industrial clients under the companies Arroyo Terminals as a front and used Jentran LLC and Big Hog Energy as intermediary firms for commercial relations with the Mexican suppliers that have been linked to the CJNG.

“The payments for this crude oil were directed to businesses in Mexico that operate only through the permission of Mexican criminal organization(s).” The Jensens are accused of funneling more than $47 million through those businesses.

Maxwell played a significant role in the scheme, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Garcia, who discussed the case during a detention hearing on April 29 in Brownsville.

“We do believe that Mr. Maxwell Jensen — him, working on behalf of the Jensen family — had significant ties to Mexico,” Garcia said.

Maxwell also spent time at the family home in the Bahamas, Garcia said, and made six trips to the Bahamas during the past 12 months.

A federal judge had set a $750,000 bail for Max, considering the high flight risk and the magnitude of the crime, which includes money laundering and customs fraud.