Border / Cartel Chronicles

Mexico’s plans for the mass deportation of migrants from the United States move into high gear as local and state officials prepare shelters and supplies.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced an open investigation by the country’s attorney general’s office against the mayor of Coalcoman, Michoacan, over a Christmas party. Government officials in attendance allegedly praised various drug kingpins from Cartel Jalisco New Generation for “their generosity” in giving a large number of gifts to local children.

Mexican authorities arrested three migrants for their alleged role in the murder of a decorated immigration agent. Two of the migrants are believed to be members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, while the third migrant is described as a Colombian national.

A migrant illegally present in the United States is in a Texas jail charged with kidnapping a Guatemalan migrant woman and holding her for ransom. He reportedly forced the woman to perform labor to work off her smuggling debt.

Cartel gunmen continued to carry out numerous killings throughout the Mexican state of Tamaulipas while government officials shamelessly claimed crime had dropped and that impunity had ended.

Texas Department of Public Safety troopers rescued two young girls who were abandoned by human smugglers along the Rio Grande after crossing from Mexico. During his successful bid to retake the White House, President-Elect Donald Trump called on Congress to apply the death penalty to child traffickers.

A Florida homeowner shot at two migrants who allegedly broke into his home Thursday night. One of the migrants, a Mexican national, died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Mexico’s government has announced a new program to provide emergency legal and consular assistance to migrants in the United States. The move comes as Mexico prepares for the expected mass deportation wave from the incoming administration of President-Elect Donald J. Trump.

Sinaloa Cartel pilots flew over several cities, dropping leaflets accusing Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya and other officials of working to help the Chapitos faction. The action comes amid a fierce months-long turf war that killed or led to the forced abduction of thousands.

A group of cartel gunmen left four bodies inside a truck in the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, in an area near a manufacturing plant from the South Korean company LG.

Authorities in Mexico are investigating the targeted killing of a Canadian man who had pending arrest warrants in his home country for arms trafficking and human trafficking. The murder took place on Saturday outside a busy shopping plaza in Playa Del Carmen, Quintana Roo, a popular beach destination just a short drive from Cancun.

A Honduran migrant who entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor now faces a murder charge in Harris County, Texas. The man was ordered removed from the U.S. by an immigration judge in 2010 after failing to show up for scheduled hearings, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.

Four Mexican soldiers died in two separate incidents this week where cartel gunmen used improvised explosive devices and land mines in the rural areas of the state of Michoacán. The explosives are part of a strategy used by rival cartels waging a fierce turf war for control of drug production and trafficking routes.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott launched a billboard campaign in Mexico and Central America, warning of the consequences of illegal migrants to the Lone Star State. One billboard asks migrant parents, “How much did you pay to have your daughter raped?”

Mexican federal prosecutors have requested the extradition of a convicted drug lord, turned protected witness, following his recent re-arrest on new drug charges. Among the charges that Mexico is trying to prosecute the drug lord for is his role as one of the masterminds in the murder of famed Mexican journalist and author Javier Valdez.

A top border patrol union said former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (R-HI) is the “right person” to be the next director of national intelligence.

A multi-agency manhunt resulted in the arrest of a South African migrant and suspected terrorist in Brooklyn, New York. Texas Highway Patrol troopers initially detained the unidentified man in Texas in September 2024. He was arrested for criminal trespass as part of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star and was turned over to federal immigration authorities for removal proceedings. Despite being identified by the state authorities as being the subject of an alert on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database, federal authorities released the migrant to pursue an asylum claim.

A group of gunmen stormed a clandestine cockfighting ring and began shooting into the crowd in a violent attack that killed four men and injured three others. The shootout is the latest of a growing wave of hyperviolent crimes that have plagued Mexico while the government claims the country has improved in public safety.

Governors in Mexico’s northern border states began making preparations for President-Elect Donald Trump’s planned mass deportation operations. The president of Mexico told the governors to expect to receive migrants removed from the United States in February.

Federal authorities in the United States deported the man who was the supreme leader of the Gulf Cartel and founder of Los Zetas. The former kingpin has completed his sentence in the United States. He is now being held in a Mexican prison where he is expected to face trial on several drug trafficking, murder, weapons, and organized crime charges in Mexico.

Maximiliano Davila-Perez, once the Director of the Bolivian Special Forces for the Fight Against Drug Trafficking (FELCN), has been extradited to the United States where he faces federal charges of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. He is also charged with conspiracy to use and possess automatic weapons in connection with his cocaine importation scheme. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced Davila-Perez’ extradition from Bolivia on Friday.

A North Dakota police chief says he cannot get help from the Biden administration regarding criminal activity involving Tren de Aragua gang members. North Dakota is now the 17th state to report Tren de Aragua gang crime.

Another migrant caravan began this week in Southern Mexico, confirming a prior report from Breitbart Texas about the caravan forming with over 2000 individuals. The group wants to reach the U.S.-Mexico border before the January 20 start of the Trump administration. Mexican immigration officials did not try to stop the caravan but stood by and photographed it.

More than 10,000 Special Interest Aliens were apprehended during the first two and one-half months of the new fiscal year. Special Interest Aliens come from countries with known ties to terrorism.

The last of six human smugglers pleaded guilty last week to the deaths of two Salvadoran migrants who were beaten to death in a warehouse in Houston in 2006. The two smugglers face up to life in prison following sentencing hearings set for next year.

A group of neighbors in the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, brutally beat a man that they allegedly caught breaking into a home. The mob beat the man, and they tied him to a light pole before calling first responders. The man died shortly after from the injuries sustained.

A group of gunmen in South Texas kidnapped two victims and held them in the border city of Brownsville, Texas. The gunmen tortured them for days over the alleged theft of drugs.

After the discovery of the Biden administration starting to sell off what appear to be sections of unused border wall materials, Texas looked into buying the sections to donate to the incoming Trump administration. Texas officials determined the materials were mostly junk, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick reported.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel questioned the findings of a CBP internal investigation concerning a whistleblower complaint that, among other allegations, the Deming New Mexico Air Unit was prevented from responding to emergency calls, resulting in several deaths. The deaths included one migrant and a Border Patrol agent who died in July 2020. After investigating the matter, the Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) ruled the allegations were unsubstantiated.

More than 2,000 migrants in southern Mexico are planning a new caravan in an attempt to reach the U.S. border before the arrival of the Trump administration on January 20. The caravan is set to depart on Thursday at midnight as they plan to avoid interference from Mexico’s immigration officials.

Five men with alleged ties to the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua are under arrest after Texas state and local police found $1 million in drugs in a Houston apartment. In addition to the drugs, police seized 24 firearms.

A video captures the moment a PA31 Piper Navajo twin-engine aircraft made an apparent forced landing onto the feeder road of a highway near Victoria, Texas.  The aircraft could not stop before entering an intersection and was struck by several vehicles.

Authorities in Mexico confirmed that a lynch mob beat and then hung three men who were allegedly trying to break into a home and kidnap a 5-year-old girl.

U.S. and Guatemalan officials announced the arrest of five people for their roles in an alleged human smuggling operation. The arrest took place in Houston, Texas, and El Boquerón, Guatemala, after 50 smuggled migrants were killed in a tractor-trailer crash in Chiapas, Mexico.

On Tuesday, San Diego County Sheriff Kelly A. Martinez announced that her office will not abide by a new sanctuary policy adopted by the Southern California county’s Board of Supervisors. The latest sanctuary policy limits cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers by prohibiting county law enforcement officers from granting ICE agents access to individuals or using County facilities for investigative interviews.

A man accused of trying to hijack a commercial airliner in Mexico and trying to get the pilot to fly him to the United States is now accused of trying to disarm a federal officer and carjack a police vehicle during an escape attempt.

Five East Texas fire departments responded to a blaze Monday morning that consumed a 163-year-old Methodist Church in Marshall. In the 1860s, the church served as an ammunition warehouse and meeting place for Confederate leaders, including President Jefferson Davis.