US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents recently seized 400 packages of methamphetamine worth $1.1 million at the Arizona-Mexico border—the largest in the history of the Nogales port of entry. Authorities are concerned this shipment was a signal from one of two large Mexican drug cartels that they are not fading from the drug smuggling scene any time soon.
Recently re-captured drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán is willing to accept extradition to the U.S. and plead guilty to drug trafficking charges. However, he will only do so if that plea keeps him out of a high-security prison.
The U.S. military and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have been using surveillance blimps, known as aerostats, for many years. However, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) may be considering using them as well, based upon an agency request for information.
Given Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán’s talent for escaping repeatedly from maximum security prisons, several extra measures are being taken to keep him in place until his extradition to the U.S. However, now Guzmán is complaining that he’s not sleeping and guards are engaging in cruel behavior directed at him.
Mexican actress Kate del Castillo recently made waves by facilitating a clandestine interview in Mexico between actor Sean Penn and notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán. However, her representatives and tabloids are reporting she feels betrayed by Penn for using her and not giving her more credit.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has acknowledged the urgency of securing drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán by asking Mexican officials to accelerate Guzmán’s extradition proceedings.
For the first time in four years, Mexico saw an 8.7 percent increase in the murder rate, according to government sources. There was also a coinciding claim of a decline in kidnapping and extortion, perhaps indicating that criminal groups are once again shifting their tactics.
It was the interview heard ‘round North America—the clandestine meeting between actor Sean Penn and notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, and the Rolling Stone article that followed. But what Penn intended to be a vehicle to initiate a deeper conversation about US drug policy ended up being a mockery of investigative journalism, and an example of a lifelong criminal manipulating an American activist for his own agenda.
As half a dozen legal districts compete for who will get to try notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán after his extradition to the U.S., the City of Miami, Florida has emerged as a top contender.
A federal jury in New Orleans, Louisiana, convicted a former Houston police officer on January 15 of charges of supplying a Mexican drug cartel with high-powered weapons and other equipment that helped them smuggle massive amounts of cocaine into Louisiana other communities across the country.
Two National Guard members pleaded guilty in a San Diego federal court on January 14 to illegally selling guns they believed were destined for Mexico—and thus likely the hands of violent drug cartels.
After months of planning, the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) is ready to roll out its new Border Strike Force as part of Governor Doug Ducey’s plan to target smuggling along the Arizona border.
Only days after his client’s capture and the highly controversial interview of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán by actor Sean Penn, Guzmán’s lawyer is calling the actor’s retelling of El Chapo’s drug trafficking claims “a lie” and “absurd speculation.”
Now that the Mexican government has agreed to negotiate terms for drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán’s extradition to the U.S., he will likely follow in the footsteps of many other Mexican kingpins before him—a plea deal to reduce his sentence, then 15-25 years in the federal prison known as Supermax in Florence, Colorado.
As the media whirlwind continues over the highly controversial interview of Mexican kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán by actor Sean Penn, many people keep asking about the woman he partnered up with to broker the meeting. Who is this Mexican actress best known for her television role as the female counterpart to Guzmán?
In a move reminiscent of then-ABC journalist John Miller’s 1998 interview of deceased terrorist Osama Bin Laden, actor Sean Penn has interviewed the Western Hemisphere’s most notorious drug lord and fugitive under legally questionable circumstances.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto took to Twitter today to make one of the biggest announcements of his presidency—the most wanted man in the Western Hemisphere, drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, had been recaptured seven months after escaping from a Mexican maximum security prison.
In response to an increase in the use of local roads by drug traffickers, the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office has formed a new task force in an attempt to deter these incursions.
Several years after being arrested in Mexico, a top drug cartel operative has agreed to change his plea to guilty in response to U.S. drug trafficking charges. His potential prison sentence is yet to be determined.
A federal judge recently sentenced the last two of 34 Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT) gang members to prison for their roles in a methamphetamine drug distribution network. The FBI claimed it marked the end of the gang’s foothold in Central Texas.
A former Houston police officer is facing up to 10 years in prison on conspiracy charges related to alleged ties to a Mexican cartel. The officer is now feeling pressure due to information being provided by convicted cocaine traffickers.
In an act that has become all too common, individuals allegedly affiliated with organized crime have murdered the mayor of a small town in Mexico less than a day since she took office.
As marijuana legalization in states like Colorado and Washington continues, marijuana farmers in Mexico are starting to see a steep decline in the profits their crops once fetched. Some growers report they’re seeing a decline in income as high as 70 percent, and they blame the popularity of higher quality legal marijuana in the U.S.
Mexican officials notified US Customs and Border Protection on December 30 that a four-foot section of a cross-border drug tunnel collapsed near the Nogales, Arizona port of entry. The tunnel was discovered in mid-November and efforts had not yet begun to fill the tunnel with concrete.
As brutal drug violence in the Mexican states of Michoacán and Guerrero continues, a Mexican prosecutor is claiming that vigilante groups supposedly battling drug cartels alongside the government have been extensively infiltrated by criminals.
As allegations of human rights abuses reportedly committed by police and military forces have persisted in Mexico, the U.S. has started to withhold aid payments. For many years, the U.S. has been providing security aid to Mexico, much of it through the Mérida Initiative as a way to counter the efforts of violent drug cartels.
Recent drug seizures and indictments indicate that Miami is back on the map as a trafficking hub for cocaine passing through Caribbean waters. After the fall of the Cali and Medellín drug cartels in Colombia, both the Florida Straits and the streets of south Florida quieted down dramatically.
A major gunfight occurred on December 26 between elements of the Mexican navy and drug traffickers in Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s hometown of Badiraguato, Sinaloa state. Some reports indicate military aircraft sustained minor damage, but two cartel attackers were killed and firearms, ammunition, and four and a half tons of marijuana were seized.
It’s no secret that Mexico’s largest drug cartel has a strong partnership with Colombia’s largest narcoterrorist group. However, recent statements made by a former Colombian president are shedding light on the multibillion dollar value of that relationship.
In an attempt to prevent the chaos of the immigrant border surge that occurred in the summer of 2014, Department of Homeland Security officials are securing various locations to temporarily house Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) and family units from Central America. As a result of that effort, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has directed Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico to house up to 400 children starting in January.
The loss of six American airmen, including four federal agents, in Afghanistan provides proof that combat is not over as far as the Taliban are concerned.
A citizen of Somalia has been arrested for helping smuggle human beings across the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. The Somali was operating from the U.S. side of the border. According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court, Omar Haji Mohamed, a Somali national, was stopped at a border checkpoint in Why, Arizona, near the Tohono O’odham Nation. He had two passengers in his vehicle, Gilberto Alcantar and Alma Delia Reyes-Castillo—both illegal immigrants from Mexico.
In a bold move sure to further destabilize very unsteady ties between the U.S. and Venezuela, U.S. prosecutors are preparing to disclose drug trafficking charges to be made against the head of Venezuela’s National Guard.
The drug trafficking ties between Colombia and Mexico go back decades, to when Colombian cartels started supplying Mexican drug runners with cocaine in the late 1970s. Those ties have since strengthened, and the recent discovery of a money laundering network between the two countries’ more powerful cartels is evidence of this.
Two alleged gun-runners were arrested in Spain on charges of buying military-grade weapons for drug cartels in Mexico. The controversy over how high-powered weapons get into the hands of Mexican drug cartels has been raging for years. US suppliers are often in the cross-hairs, so the recent arrest of individuals buying military-grade weapons for the cartels in Spain put a twist on perceptions of weapons trafficking to Mexico.
The Mexican government claims it has registered significant declines in kidnapping rates for 2015. Many drug war observers and Mexican citizens are very skeptical about the truth behind these government figures.
A blog about Mexican drug cartels reported on December 7 about a leaked encrypted email supposedly sent by notorious Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán to prominent Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. In the email, Guzmán allegedly threatens to retaliate against ISIS for destroying drug shipments and interfering in cartel business. Despite numerous mainstream media outlets reporting this “story” on December 10, the sole unverified source for this information is an unidentified Mexican blogger.
Many Americans are familiar with the term “blood diamond” or “conflict diamond,” which defines a diamond mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, an invading army’s war efforts, or a warlord’s activity—most commonly in Africa. Less commonly known; however, is “conflict gold.” Violent Mexican drug cartels are now fighting over revenues being paid to poor communities by corporations mining gold in areas of Mexico they have turned into war zones.
The surge of illegal aliens arriving in south Texas during the summer of 2014 stunned law enforcement agencies and social service providers across the Rio Grande Valley. The numbers haven’t been as high in 2015, but some organizations are noticing a spike in the numbers of illegal aliens from El Salvador walking through their doors in recent months.
Mexican authorities announced on December 4 they have detained the brother of the Cartel de Jalisco’s notorious leader. Formally known as the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), the drug cartel is one of the fastest growing—and most violent—criminal organizations in Mexico.
