Arco Pipeline in Desert Tapped for $2.5 Million in Oil, FBI Says
Thieves who tapped into an Atlantic Richfield Co. pipeline near this desert community have siphoned off an estimated $2.5-million worth of crude oil in the last two years, the FBI said Wednesday.
Agents were investigating the theft from the 50,000-barrel-a-day pipeline between Long Beach and Red Mesa, Utah, FBI spokesman John Hoos said in Los Angeles.
No arrests have been made, Hoos said.
The thefts began in January, 1983, Hoos said. Agents served a federal search warrant Tuesday at a pipeline site along California 62 near Morongo Valley and found a “tap” used to siphon off the oil.
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