Utah couple arrested, accused of smuggling $300M in oil into US from Mexico

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A Utah couple was arrested for smuggling $300M worth of oil into the U.S. from Mexico.
James and Kelly Jensen allegedly laundered money from illegal oil imports since 2022.
U.S. Marshals raided their $9.1M Sandy mansion and Arroyo Terminals business in Texas.

SANDY — A Utah couple is being accused of money laundering and smuggling oil into the U.S. from Mexican cartels, after they were arrested during a multistate raid by U.S. Marshals, according to court documents.

James Lael Jensen and his wife, Kelly Anne Jensen, were booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Wednesday. The couple and two of his sons are being federally indicted for allegedly conspiring to smuggle 2,881 shipments of oil from Mexico that they knew were illegal.

The family is accused of moving at least $300 million worth of oil from Mexico to the U.S.

The couple was arrested at their 26,893-square-foot mansion in Sandy, valued at $9.1 million, according to a person close to the situation who requested they be kept anonymous due to cartel involvement. The source said the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Apprehension Team showed up with a battering ram in tow

The U.S. District Court of Utah's detention documents allege the Jensens and their two sons, Max Jensen and Zachary Jensen, conspired to "launder proceeds from sales of illegally imported crude oil. The payments for this crude oil were directed to businesses in Mexico that operate only through the permission of Mexican criminal organizations. James Jensen was aware that the payments he made were going to these Mexican criminal organizations."

The charges state that the money laundering and illegal imports began in May 2022.

The couple's arrest occurred the same day as a raid on James Jensen's company, Arroyo Terminals in Rio Hondo, Texas, near the Mexican border. The raid was reported by multiple Texas news outlets, and the company's website was privatized as of Friday.

Undated photo of James Jensen taken from his company website, Arroyo Terminals. (Photo: Arroyo Terminals)

U.S. District Court ordered the Jensens to forfeit any money gained from the smuggled oil, including their company, an additional home listed for the family in Draper, as well as bank accounts, oil tankers and new cars totaling $300 million.

Despite documents filed requesting James Jensen be held without bail due to the possible flight risk he poses, he was scheduled to be released from jail Friday morning, under GPS surveillance.

KSL-TV observed James Jensen in his Sandy neighborhood, back at home, late Friday morning.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

Most recent Police & Courts stories

Related topics

Police & CourtsUtah

Brian Carlson

Brian Carlson is an award-winning Utah journalist, who has spent the last 16 years reporting in his hometown, but his time on television started much earlier than that. Born and raised in Utah, Brian got his first taste for on-air news at 8 years old being interviewed by KSL for knowing how to call 911 during an attempted home break-in. He began appearing regularly on TV in high school for an all-student run show on KUTV, then graduated from BYU in Broadcast Journalism. His professional TV career started in 2005 at KNDU in Kennewick, Washington. Brian moved back to Utah in 2008 reporting and anchoring for various shows at ABC4, and finally came to KSL in June 2024. In 2012, Brian won a regional Emmy for his report titled “Spice in the City,” in which Brian purchased drugs undercover and was instrumental in assisting police capture an illegal drug dealer. In 2014, Brian was the first TV reporter to tell the story of Ron Stallworth, a young black detective who infiltrated the KKK. Brian’s report became the catalyst to the Oscar award-winning film “BlacKkKlansman” directed by Spike Lee. In Brian’s career, he’s reported on everything from going behind the fire lines documenting the moment an elderly couple discovered they lost all they had in a Utah wildfire, to jumping out of an airplane, or gliding 57 mph down the Olympic skeleton track in Park City. Brian is also the only reporter to become an NBA mascot for a day, working with the former Utah Jazz Bear. Watching KSL5 News you can find Brian each week covering the latest news LIVE on location, including the devastating flooding in Orem, the Honie execution, or from the Utah GOP headquarters LIVE on election night, etc. Brian is happily married to his wife Liz and together they have an adorable son. He’s also stepfather to four children. Brian enjoys weightlifting, water sports, rock climbing, cheering on the BYU Cougars, and loves calling the Beehive State home.