Ildefonso Ortiz

Mexican authorities have filed terrorism and organized crime charges against a local journalist over his work as a crime reporter. The arrest and prosecution sparked widespread condemnation from international press freedom organizations over the use of law enforcement against journalists who are uncomfortable with the political elite.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced an enforcement operation along the southwest border targeting more than 100 money service businesses (MSBs). The effort is the latest operation aimed at cutting off financial tools used by drug cartels.

A criminal investigation into the majority owner of the Miss Universe pageant has uncovered allegations that his organization helped smuggle weapons from Guatemala into Mexico, using shipments of clothing and electronics to move guns that ultimately supplied Mexico City’s black market and cartel groups, including Cartel Jalisco New Generation and the Tepito Union.

One of the top leaders of Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) is back in jail after spending more than seven months in house arrest. He continued his leadership of the cartel, designated by the U.S. government as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

A former Mexican politician with Mexico’s ruling party MORENA spent almost an hour hiding in a bathroom in an attempt to avoid being dragged by agents to a hearing tied to an anti-corruption and embezzlement investigation during her term as mayor of Muzquiz, Coahuila.

Authorities in South Texas arrested a human smuggler who had allegedly dragged a sick migrant out of a stash house and dumped him on a rural road, expecting him to die.

A group of cartel gunmen disabled a home’s security system before going inside and killing four victims in one of the latest acts of violence in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas. The killing comes at a time when government officials continue to claim that the region is safe while the Gulf Cartel terrorizes locals.

Cartel gunmen resumed the use of landmines in the Mexican state just south of the border with Texas. In the most recent series of attacks, the gunmen used an explosive to kill an innocent farmer who was driving to a ranch. In a separate attack, they injured five police officers using another buried landmine.

Guatemala deployed special forces, known as Kaibiles, to guard its northern border with Mexico just days after teams of cartel gunmen from Mexico entered the country and carried out violent attacks in rural border communities. The teams of cartel gunmen also clashed with Guatemalan military forces.

Forty-three state police officers in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas have been suspended. They are under investigation for having turned their police station into a bar and being drunk on the job. The scandal comes at a time when Tamaulipas continues to experience rising levels of cartel violence, and state police officers have been accused of not acting against cartel gunmen.

An apparent suicide bomber drove a vehicle full of explosives towards a community police station in Western Mexico and set it off. The bomb killed the suicide bomber and two other victims, and injured ten others. The suicide attack using car bombs marks an escalation in the way drug cartels have been fighting authorities in Mexico.

Prosecutors in the Mexican border state of Coahuila have filed child abuse charges against a priest who is currently living in Texas. Authorities are also working to file more charges in connection with a second victim and believe there may be more.

Federal prosecutors in Laredo secured convictions against two illegal aliens who built and sold machine guns and cocaine in the border city. One of the men pleaded guilty earlier this year, while the second one went to trial this week. Jurors found him guilty of all counts.

For several days, Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, attempted to downplay the resignation of her Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero. His resignation sparked widespread controversy over his sudden exit.

The son of jailed Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera pleaded guilty to various drug trafficking charges as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. As part of the plea deal, the young drug lord Joaquin “El Guero” Guzman Lopez confessed to having planned the kidnapping of his father’s former ally, Sinaloa Cartel’s co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, in order to turn him over to U.S. authorities.

Two migrant women fell while climbing the border wall into California. A trucker who was waiting in line to cross through a port of entry captured the incident on a cell phone, which has since been widely shared on social media.

U.S. consular officials are warning travelers about the high risk of carjackings by cartel gunmen on the highways leading north to the Texas border. Just hours after issuing that warning, a group of cartel gunmen shot two men from Mexico who were heading to Texas to take advantage of the Black Friday specials.

The son of notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is set to plead guilty in U.S. federal court in a stunning turn that could shatter cartel alliances and expose ties to Mexico’s political elite. Joaquín “El Moreno” Guzmán López, arrested in 2024 during a betrayal operation against Sinaloa kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, is expected to cooperate with U.S. law enforcement — a move that threatens to unleash cartel secrets at the highest levels of power.

The majority owner of the Miss Universe pageant, Raul Rocha, is the current target of an organized crime probe in Mexico, where the businessman is alleged to have taken part in weapons trafficking for the Gulf Cartel and illegal fuel trafficking.

Farmers and truckers throughout Mexico are expected to continue blocking many of the main highways throughout the nation as they demand to be free from cartel violence and extortion. The blockades, set up in over 20 states across Mexico and virtually freezing all commerce, will continue as protesters claim their demands have fallen on deaf ears.

Thousands of farmers and transportation workers took to the streets throughout Mexico to set up blockades along the main highways in the country as a way to protest the cartel violence and the extortion that they are subjected to. The protests come at a time of mounting pressure for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum over widespread allegations that, instead of protecting her citizens from organized crime, she and the country’s ruling party, MORENA, have been protecting the various criminal organizations terrorizing the nation.

A U.S. Department of Justice employee has been hit with state terrorism charges after allegedly doxxing a federal agent during a border raid.

The mayor of the Mexican border city of Tijuana, Baja California, is threatening to take legal action against any news outlet that publishes information about an ongoing money-laundering investigation into him. The politician is allegedly linked to two businessmen who have been singled out for their alleged ties to both Cartel Jalisco New Generation and the Sinaloa Cartel.

The Canadian government has issued a travel advisory warning travelers to avoid parts of Mexico and exercise “high levels of caution” when traveling throughout the country due to “high levels of criminal activity and kidnapping.”

Authorities in Spain raided the base of operations of the terrorist organization Cartel Jalisco New Generation in that country and uncovered ties that the cartel had with the Italian Camorra.

A highly publicized protest in Mexico City has sparked much international controversy, leading some news outlets and pundits on the right to suggest that Mexico could be seeing the start of a revolution similar to those seen in other countries during protests dubbed Gen Z. The reality in Mexico is much different, with the results of the protest expected to fizzle out. At the same time, political undercurrents shift between the country’s ruling party and its rivals as they prepare for future elections.

A federal judge in Texas sentenced an Indian national who was in the United States on a student visa to more than eight years in prison for his role in a financial scam that targeted senior citizens.

The U.S. Treasury Department has moved against a group of Albanian mobsters based in Mexico that worked with the Sinaloa Cartel to launder money through casinos and entertainment businesses. The move was coordinated with Mexican authorities, who began shutting down 13 casinos this week that had been transferring money to Romania, Switzerland, Malta, and the United Arab Emirates.

Police in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas are ignoring innocent cartel victims and not responding to the scenes of attacks. This new development allows cartel gunmen to attack innocent victims with complete impunity while government officials claim that crime is decreasing in the cartel-controlled state.

The Israeli Embassy in Mexico revealed that Mexican authorities worked to foil an assassination plot by Iran against its ambassador in that country. The announcement sparked controversy in Mexico as government officials tried to distance themselves from the operation. Iran’s Embassy in Mexico claimed that it was all lies from Israel.

Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, denounced the war on drugs, claiming that her government was not going to go that route because killing drug traffickers is a fascist approach that violates their rights. The comments come at a time when Mexico’s government has been harshly criticized worldwide for the raging cartel violence and the government corruption that has enabled it.

Mexico’s President Claudia Shainbaum announced that she would be filing criminal charges against a man who sneaked past her security detail and fondled her during a public appearance in Mexico City.

Riots continue in the Mexican state of Michoacan following the murder of a local mayor who had gained fame for his hard stance against crime and cartels. In the most recent riots, protesters set fire to the city hall building in Apatzingan as locals called for the ousting of cartel-connected politicians from Mexico’s ruling party, MORENA.

Authorities in Mexico confirmed a large-scale shootout in the hyperviolent western state of Sinaloa, where 13 gunmen died while trying to ambush a squad of Mexican soldiers. In the aftermath of the clash, authorities also reported rescuing nine kidnapping victims.

The cartel-connected governor of the Mexican state of Michoacan had to leave a ceremony and wake held to honor Carlos Manzo, the murdered Mayor of Uruapan, who had become famous in Mexico for his hard stance against cartels. Amid insults, shoves, and shouts, Governor Alfredo Ramirez Bedolla had to make a quick exit after trying to attend the event. Hours later, hundreds of protesters vandalized the governor’s palace and even attempted to torch it during a protest over Manzo’s murder and the raging cartel violence that plagues Michoacan.

A group of cartel gunmen shot and killed one of the most outspoken politicians in Western Mexico. The Uruapan, Michoacán, mayor had taken a hard stance against drug cartels and had his city cops fight them at a time when state and federal politicians there had deep connections to criminal organizations.