A court in Holguín sentenced seven individuals to prison terms ranging from 12 to 15 years for the theft of dielectric oil from a transformer at the Moa Nueva substation, which was destroyed and left 6,184 homes without electricity during the early hours of March 12 to 13.
The Second Criminal Chamber of the Provincial People's Court of Holguín, acting as the Chamber for Crimes Against State Security of the Provincial People's Court of Santiago de Cuba, processed the case as a sabotage offense, as defined in Article 125-1 of the Penal Code, the official newspaper ¡Ahora! reported this Thursday.
Four young men from the Punta Gorda neighborhood in eastern Moa stole 1,248 liters of dielectric oil from one of the transformers at the facility in two trips made during the early morning hours.
One of the individuals involved acted as a lookout, while three others extracted the liquid and placed it in jars for later transport, the report noted.
The operation also involved three citizens from Sancti Spíritus who were passing through Moa to carry out business related to the sale of agricultural products from their cooperative. They facilitated transportation and purchased some of the stolen oil.
The transfer was carried out in a state truck to a location known as Pan y Dulce. The next day, the vehicle owner paid 960,000 Cuban pesos to the mastermind of the operation, money that was distributed among the four actual perpetrators. The oil could not be recovered.
The extraction caused a short circuit in phase B of the transformer and its subsequent structural explosion, which rendered the equipment permanently out of service. The dielectric oil serves both cooling and insulation functions, so its removal compromised the operation of the transformer.
According to the source, the outage left 6,184 homes without electricity in circuits four and 11 of Moa and affected the secondary power supply of the regional hospital. Additionally, transformer number one at the substation had to take on the entire load, which caused further damage to the equipment.
The reported economic damages for the Moa Electric Company amounted to 138,054.49 Cuban pesos, corresponding to the stolen oil and the damage to the transformer.
The sentence is not definitive, as the convicted individuals have 10 days to file an appeal for cassation before the Supreme People's Tribunal.
The trial, described as "exemplary," is the second of its kind this year in Holguín for the theft of dielectric oil, the media outlet pointed out.
In September, a 19-year-old was sentenced to eight years in prison and his uncle received ten years for a similar offense in the municipality of Urbano Noris, which left more than 4,000 customers without electricity.
We have recorded a total of 65 incidents that threaten our electrical system so far, compared to 42 at the same stage last year, with the most notable being concentrated in the theft of dielectric oil," said Fabián Vega Genicio, distribution director of the Electric Company of Holguín, while providing figures that illustrate the magnitude of the problem.
Of the 65 cases recorded so far this year, 36 pertain to thefts of dielectric oil, compared to only four during the same period in 2025.
According to the executive, the epidemic of oil thefts in Holguín is exacerbated by the fuel crisis, as many people use that liquid as a substitute for vehicles without considering that its extraction destroys transformers.
Vega also warned that three substations in the province remain affected by this type of crime. In this regard, he elaborated, more than 800 customers in the municipality of Frank País have been without service for over a month due to damage at the La Camaronera substation, while Farallones de Moa (since May 4) and Juan Paz in Sagua de Tánamo are awaiting the arrival of oil for their replacement.
At the beginning of September, Cuban authorities admitted to more than 460 criminal investigations for crimes against the National Electric System between 2025 and the first half of 2026.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, acknowledged before the National Assembly in July that the theft of dielectric oil occurs "daily" and that the volume stolen is "almost similar" to what Cuba produces in the same period.
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