Why Your Gas Price is a Geopolitical Crime Scene
Fueling Crime Fiction PLUS Cover Reveal & Release date for DRAGON CARTEL!
Welcome to the Crime Fiction Files. I’m CIA veteran Carmen Amato, sharing the encounters, experiences and current events behind my crime fiction thrillers, including the award-winning Detective Emilia Cruz police series set in Acapulco.
Find more at carmenamato.net/links.
Photo by Dean Moriarty via Pixabay
Here in Tennessee, it cost $27 more to fill my gas tank today than it did three weeks ago.
I bet you’ve experienced a recent hike at the gas pump, too.
War has bottled up shipping through the Iranian-controlled Straits of Hormuz, the chokepoint for much of the oil coming out of the Middle East. That reduction in supply is causing the price of oil to soar.
But in the world of global energy, the truth is often buried deeper than the oil itself. Whether it’s a mystery spill off the coast of Veracruz or a shadow fleet playing hide-and-seek in the South China Sea, someone is always erasing fingerprints from the crime scene.
It’s the kind of high-stakes game that Detective Emilia Cruz knows all too well.
Consider this roundup of current events
MEXICO
An oil spill off the eastern coast of the state of Veracruz has spread at least 373 miles, marring beaches and killing wildlife in protected areas. Authorities have blamed the spill on an unidentified tanker which had anchored in early March near the port city of Coatzacoalcos, plus natural seepage.
Map courtesy Greenpeace Mexico
Could Mexico’s state-owned oil company PEMEX, known for aging refineries and opaque business practices, be responsible? After all, the Pajarito facility is near Coatzacoalcos. Ten years ago a huge explosion at the plant killed 13 and wounded dozens.
But be reassured, President Claudia Sheinbaum recently told reporters that PEMEX is not responsible for the discharge. Helping with the cleanup, tho.
Moreover, the governor of the state of Veracruz claimed only drops of oil had been found on beaches, not giant tar balls, and that those pesky reports of dead wildlife were false.
Who to believe . . .
VENEZUELA
The country has the largest oil reserves in the world, but decades of government mismanagement and corruption kept production low. Without strongman Nicolas Maduro (who pleaded Not Guilty in a New York court this week) can Venezuela resuscitate its oil industry and sell to the legitimate global market?
A map in case you forgot where Venezuela is
Opposition leader María Corina Machado says yes. She presented a plan to oil execs in Houston to go from a state-run enterprise to a fully private industry. The cost? About $150 billion.
Given that Machado is not in power in Caracas, nor does she have $, is a healthy oil-producing Venezuela a pipe dream?
(No pun intended. wink)
CHINA
A number of news reports say Beijing is sitting on a massive stockpile of oil and is doing just fine as Middle East exports are squeezed. But this stockpile is built on 2025 imports of sanctioned crude oil from Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, all under pressure to change their maldita ways.
China’s got a logistics headache, too. Its “shadow fleet” tankers have been seized in international waters as part of US actions against vessels attempting to evade sanctions on Venezuelan oil. Shadow fleet tankers use false flags and manipulated tracking signals to conceal themselves while transporting sanctioned oil.
In 2025, the tanker SKIPPER was tracked on satellite transferring its cargo to a legitimate Chinese vessel and seized by the US near Venezuela.
Will our wallets take another hit when China’s stockpile runs low?
RUSSIA
Ukraine continues to attack Russian energy installations in an attempt to starve Moscow’s war-fighting engine.
Map courtesy Newsweek
Those attacks, combined with a hit on a major pipeline and the seizure of its own shadow fleet carrying sanctioned oil have caused a 40% reduction in Russia‘s oil export capacity.
According to Reuters, this is the most severe oil supply disruption in the modern history of Russia.
I doubt President Putin will be endorsing that claim anytime soon . . .
#excerpt
Is it a spill, a heist, or just business as usual?
Real-life PEMEX mysteries might stay unsolved, but not in the Detective Emilia Cruz series! Leanne Maksin’s new audiobook narration of RUSSIAN MOJITO is coming to Audible.
Emilia Cruz uncovers a Russian scheme to make money from PEMEX corruption. The action starts with the murder of a Russian spy and rockets to a midnight stakeout as fuel thieves tap a PEMEX gas pipeline.
Add in a chain-smoking Russian hitman and the climax is combustible, to say the least.
Listen to this sample of Emilia’s encounter with a couple of Russians with a big secret to hide.
#comingsoon
DRAGON CARTEL, Detective Emilia Cruz’s 10th outing, will be released on 16 June.
The ebook will hit all online stores first, followed by paperback and audiobook formats.
Matt Chase, whose graphics have graced the pages of The New York Times, The Economist and other international media, has once again created a fantastic cover, in keeping with the signature aesthetic of the series: sun-drenched colors of Mexico, clever iconography, and a dangerous promise of trouble ahead.
Check out the skull motif on that Chinese lantern! My new favorite cover!
That’s all for this edition. Thank you for spending this time with me.
Until next time,
PS: A percentage of book sales and affiliate links go to support veterans and first responder organizations. When you buy a book, invite me on a podcast or recommend this newsletter, you help me help others. Thank you.
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MY BACKSTORY— I learned a few things about danger, deception and resilience during a 30-year career with the CIA focusing on counterdrug and technical collection. Now a mystery author, those lessons play out on the page, especially in the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series set in Acapulco. Starting with Cliff Diver, the series is a back-to-back winner of the Poison Cup Award for Outstanding Series from CrimeMasters of America. I’ve also written historical and political thrillers, essays about the craft of crime fiction, and live with a very large white dog named Bear.
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