Mexico

In Mexico a local gang leader’s mother was kidnapped this week, in response to the abduction of a group of young men.  The vigilantes are now proposing a prisoner exchange in order to the free their loved ones. Mexico has a history of drug related violence and police corruption, with criminals using kidnapping as a steady […]

A former Army sergeant from San Antonio, Texas is facing up to 30 years in prison after admitting in a federal court that he funneled dozens of assault rifles to operatives of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel. Sgt. Julian Prezas acknowledged acquiring and selling 42 firearms, the San Antonio Express-News reported, but a co-defendant turned informant said just last year Prezas […]

Argentina’s government has stepped up security at the ports in its main grain exporting hub of Rosario, counting on cooperation with private terminal operators to keep drug traffickers away from a key industry. Some 3,000 federal police, coast guard, gendarmerie and airport police have been deployed in Santa Fe province in recent weeks with about […]

I will be the first to concede that I was wrong about this election, and not just me, but so were the professional statisticians that I was paying attention to.  Donald Trump won the 2016 election in a political upset that will be studied by the political science community for decades to come.  He broke […]

Every November 2, Mexicans mark the Day of the Dead by honouring deceased loved ones. Given the disproportionate number of deaths produced by Mexico’s US-backed drug war, officially launched in 2006, it is starting to seem like an ever-more tragically appropriate tradition. In a recent investigative piece for The Nation, Dawn Paley details the “spectacular […]

The military convoy was escorting a wounded suspect in an ambulance when it came under armed attack on the outskirts of Culiacan in the northern state of Sinaloa early Friday. General Alfonso Duarte told reporters that Guzman’s sons were “very probably” responsible for the pre-dawn ambush. The gunmen reportedly laid in wait for the ambulance […]

The remains of 10 US soldiers killed during the Mexican-American war are being returned 170 years after their deaths.  The troops are believed to have been volunteers who fought during the Battle of Monterrey in Mexico in 1846. The battle was key in a two-year war which led to the annexation by the US of a […]

Government informants revealed to authorities that, in one case, a Gulf Cartel commander known as El Puma ordered that rifles and vests which had been used in a kidnapping and murder be placed in a box and buried in a property belonging to the Beltran family. The Beltran group had De La Cruz get rid of the weapons, which he did by taking them to a local gun store to be sold off.

Surrendering large groups of families to the Border Patrol is a method cartels have been using since before the humanitarian crisis two years ago. With August reporting the highest number of immigrant apprehensions during that same period since 2012.

Undocumented immigrants are flooding the border once again at the hand of criminal cartels, a tactic that Villegas said doesn’t always work.

“We’re always one step ahead of the game,” he said. “They have their tactics, we have ours. We have multiple units doing what they have to do, we have cameras, we have sensors, and we have things to make sure that they can’t accomplish their mission.”

US authorities have said since 2012 that drug traffickers have made use of such cannons. Cans and packets of marijuana, cocaine, and crystal meth have been discovered on the US side of the border, and, according to Mexican newspaper Reforma, those projectiles can be launched from 200 meters inside Mexican territory.

Joel Luna seemed an ideal Border Patrol hire: south Texas native, high school ROTC standout, Army combat veteran.

A ledger documented the sale of drugs, guns and ammunition. Most damning of all, authorities said, was a commemorative Border Patrol badge and documents belonging to Joel Luna, including his work station password and Security Service Federal Credit Union account number.

Joel said he “had no knowledge of the safe,” according to investigators’ dash camera video. He was arrested on various charges, including tampering with evidence and capital murder. In his mugshot, he looked weary.

In addition to the ongoing cartel violence, innocent citizens have also been affected by the lawlessness that has taken over the city. Drug cartels have been resorting to kidnapping and extortion as a way to make fast money for their ongoing wars.