Ildefonso Ortiz

ROMA, Texas — Three fishermen riding a boat in Texas waters were shot by suspected cartel gunmen from the Mexican side of the border. One was killed while two others sustained injuries.

PHARR, Texas — Authorities in this border city continue to look into how three gunmen wearing body armor and face masks stormed a local house demanding cash and left after shooting two victims. The case seems to follow the pattern of what local authorities refer to as “home invasions”.

A top-level member of the Italian mafia was arrested by federal law enforcement officials in this Mexican border state. The mafia leader is expected to be sent back to Italy to serve a prison term from a prior conviction. Authorities discovered the man hiding in the country illegally.

REYNOSA, Tamaulipas — State police officers were able to rescue a local notary public who had been kidnapped earlier this week and arrested one of the kidnappers.

McALLEN, Texas — A U.S. Postal Service employee in this border city has pleaded guilty in federal court to taking money in exchange for sharing the names and addresses of mail ballot voters with Democrat get-out-the-vote operatives, locally known as “politiqueras.”

LAREDO, Texas — A U.S. citizen from this border city who was found guilty of assaulting a U.S. Border Patrol agent while smuggling roughly five pounds of crystal meth will spend almost 20 years in prison.

Mexican authorities arrested a sexual predator allegedly responsible for forcing dozens of underage girls into prostitution in Texas, New York, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. The man was listed as one of the top 10 most wanted fugitives by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Police arrested a previously deported illegal immigrant in connection with the beating of a local man to steal his car. The Honduran national is now facing capital murder charges after the victim died.

A county judge in Oregon is under fire for allegedly helping an illegal immigrant use her private entrance to avoid being captured by federal agents. The judge is not facing criminal charges at this time; however, the Department of Justice is looking into the matter.

McALLEN, Texas — A couple from this border region has pleaded guilty to federal sex trafficking charges for luring and pimping out a 14 and 15-year old female.

A Texas border man previously wanted on child abuse charges has now been arrested in connection with a shooting and the kidnapping of his ex-girlfriend.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — A Texas man with relatives in Iraq has been arrested in connection with the parental kidnapping of his child. The man had managed to take the child to Mexico City where he had been trying to get an Iraqi passport.

GRANJENO, Texas — Families and unaccompanied children from Central American countries continue to turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents expecting to be released. The most recent statistics show that the numbers continue to spike in an upward trend.

EDINBURG, Texas — A businessman from Austin, Texas, has been accused of using a corrupt Mexican judge and a diplomat to file fake arrest warrants extorting $2.8 million from a former business partner. The scheme placed the victim into U.S. law enforcement databases as a wanted man so he would be detained by immigration authorities. The man was temporarily detained and released multiple times.

The new secretary of Homeland Security has issued a set of memos calling for the agency to begin construction of a border wall. Efforts will be focused in El Paso, Texas, Tucson Arizona, and El Centro, California.

Mexican police killed at least eight cartel gunmen and a taxi driver in the recent gun battles that have descended on this border city. Mexican authorities continue to hunt for an elusive leader with the Gulf Cartel.

A convicted human smuggler will be spending 20-years in prison for having kidnapped a group of illegal immigrants for ransom, and for raping at least one woman that he had in his house.

Mexican cartel smugglers used a makeshift catapult to launch drug bundles over the border fence near Douglas, Arizona.

McALLEN, Texas — A previously deported illegal immigrant from Honduras has been arrested in connection with the brutal beating of a 56-year-old man while stealing his car. The man was about to be removed again before local police officers were able to charge him for the latest crimes.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — An illegal immigrant from Mexico has been charged in connection with the attempted purchase of at least one grenade launcher and three AK-47s in Texas; it remains unclear if the weapons were meant for a drug cartel. The grenade launcher was bound for Mexico before the bust.

Mexican authorities are using the deportation of a woman in Arizona as a platform to promote their consular services pointing to a “new reality” with “severe applications of migration control.”

MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon — State authorities authorities have arrested a man wanted by the U.S. Department of Justice for his role in laundering millions in cartel funds and bribes for a fugitive Tamaulipas governor. The arrest was part of a joint operation between Tamaulipas and Nuevo León. Hours after the arrest, federal authorities in Mexico released him claiming they did not have a warrant.

Once again, Pope Francis appears to be criticizing President Donald Trump and his plans to build a wall on the country’s southern border. While not naming Trump directly, the pontiff called for building bridges and not walls, adding that it was not Christian to ask someone else to pay for it.

A recent series of gun battles in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, which have killed at least 12 and one bystander appear to be linked to a recent split within the Sinaloa Cartel. The split appears to be a power grab by one faction that tried to kill off famed leader El Mayo and the sons El Chapo.

Mexico’s top diplomats traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and DHS Secretary John Kelly.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — The family of a migrant who died when she was reportedly struck by a U.S. Coast Guard boat is suing the federal government for damages. They allege that the government is responsible for the woman’s death since the craft was moving at a high rate of speed in area known for human smuggling.

A recent border shooting where cartel smugglers fired at U.S. Border Patrol agents points to a disturbing trend as organized crime members appear to be getting more aggressive against law enforcement.

McALLEN, Texas — A Salvadoran national has been formally charged in connection with more than 20 child porn videos that have victims as young as four-years-old. The videos were found in the man’s cell phone when he was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol while illegally entering the country.

NUEVO LAREDO, Tamaulipas –Una vez mas los carteles de la droga han atacado y amenazado a los medios en esta ciudad fronteriza. El mas reciente ataque causo que uno de los periódicos dejara de imprimir su edición por dos días.

NUEVO LAREDO, Tamaulipas — Once more, a Mexican drug cartel has attacked and threatened news outlets in this border city. The most recent incident forced one of the newspapers to stop printing for two days.