Mexico is in the midst of a crisis again.

And no, it doesn't have anything to do with the border wall that caused the US government to be hopelessly deadlocked for more than a month.

Or the economy. Or murders and violence. Or drug trafficking. Or bird flu.

Nope. Mexico is battling an enormous problem with its oil pipelines.

In a way that almost sounds ridiculous.

But oil thieves have been drilling holes in Mexico's extensive network of oil and gas piplelines across the country to steal fuel and sell it on the black market.

State-owned oil company PEMEX found more than 12,500 illegal holes in the pipelines last year.

And these oil thieves went as far as building a 2-mile long pipe themselves to divert oil directly from the refineries.

Selling oil on the secondary market is a highly lucrative business in Mexico. And some farmers who take up a job as lookouts for the thieves can earn more than five times their regular income doing so.

The work is also incredibly dangerous… more than 80 people recently died in a pipeline explosion north of Mexico City when they were trying to siphon off gas.

But Mexico's new president has decided to do something about this.

And in typical, political brilliance, he ordered the pipelines to be shut down.

So now, instead of transporting oil and gas via pipelines, they'll ship everything via truck and rail.