Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is being forced to choose between protecting the cartel- connected political party that got her into power or actually fighting drug cartels, as the Trump administration has been pressuring her to do. For now, Sheinbaum appears to be moving to protect her party. It remains to be seen how the U.S. government will react.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the unsealing of a criminal indictment against a sitting Mexican governor and his closest allies. The case is historic in nature since it is the first time that a sitting Mexican governor has been named in a cartel-connected criminal case.
After being convicted of possessing with the intent to distribute more than two million lethal doses of fentanyl, 51-year-old Jimenez James Love of Harlingen, Texas, was sentenced to serve the rest of his life in federal prison. Authorities believe Love transported the narcotics and conducted other illicit activities on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Mexican military forces found a narco-tunnel that was being built connecting Nogales, Sonora, with its sister city in Arizona. The tunnel is connected to the Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.
A member of the Sinaloa Cartel died over the weekend in an explosion shortly after flying into Mexico State. The incident has sparked renewed controversies about Mexico’s refusal to label cartels as terrorist organizations despite their terror-style tactics.
An Arizona gun dealer is facing terrorism charges in connection with a conspiracy to provide weapons to both Cartel Jalisco New Generation and the Sinaloa Cartel. Both Mexican cartels are designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. Department of State.
Mexican military forces clashed with several gunmen from the Sinaloa Cartel, killing 11 of them. The shootout came as a result of a series of raids in a luxurious suburb of Culiacan, where forces arrested the daughter of jailed cartel kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Hours later, Mexican authorities released the woman despite U.S. authorities having identified her in the past as a money laundering operator for the cartel.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) formally charged two top lieutenants of the Sinaloa Cartel with terrorism and is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to their capture.
Last month, a group of cartel gunmen stormed a mining camp, kidnapped ten employees of a Canadian mining company, and are believed to have murdered them. So far, authorities have been able to identify five of the bodies found in a clandestine mass grave.
Mexico’s government deployed approximately 1,000 soldiers as part of an operation aimed at finding and rescuing ten employees from a Canadian mining company. The workers were taken at gunpoint by members of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Ryan Wedding, a fugitive Canadian drug boss who is a former Olympian and had made the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list, surrendered to authorities in Mexico. Almost immediately following the arrest, FBI agents flew Wedding to the United States to stand trial on numerous federal charges.
Videos show that the Sinaloa Cartel used marble slabs and statues to smuggle meth into Spain from Mexico. Authorities in Spain, working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, were able to raid several properties and businesses in a takedown of the cartel and its allies in that country, which led to the arrest of nine individuals.
The newly released criminal indictment filed against now-arrested Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, his wife, and others reveals key details about how they used diplomatic planes to fly drug money from Mexico into Venezuela. The indictment also shows a long-standing trafficking relationship with the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Zetas (now called Cartel Del Noreste).
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Saturday morning posted the unsealed grand jury indictment against Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Mexico’s federal security forces raided multiple properties tied to Ryan Wedding — a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder accused of becoming a billion‑dollar cartel trafficker — but the FBI Most Wanted fugitive remains at large despite a sweeping operation that uncovered drugs, weapons, and luxury assets.
The Sinaloa Cartel’s Northwest pipeline took another major hit this month after King County Sheriff’s deputies seized more than 200 pounds of meth, heroin, and nearly $90,000 in drug cash during a targeted operation north of Seattle.
Federal prosecutors say the Sinaloa Cartel hired two 15‑year‑old members of a Mexican Mafia‑affiliated gang to carry out a pair of assassination attempts in Chula Vista, California, attacks that left one man dead and several wounded before the teens fled back to Los Angeles.
The leader of one of Mexico’s largest labor unions is denying allegations and news reports that linked a newly captured boss with the Sinaloa Cartel, who is the alleged leader behind the widespread extortions of ranchers and truckers, and was a regional secretary for the union. A series of leaks has revealed that the two were allegedly close allies.
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.
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.
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.
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.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced on Tuesday evening that the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) provided actionable intelligence to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials to successfully capture a boss of the Sinaloa Cartel Plaza known as “El Pato.”
The U.S. Consulate in Tijuana sounded the alarm about a terrorist cartel attack involving explosive devices that caused various blasts near the beach hotspot of Playas de Tijuana. Mexican authorities have remained silent and have not released any information on the attack, which targeted a state police building.
Six cartel gunmen died in a shootout near the beach tourist hotspot of Ensenada, Baja California. The shootout comes just days after two cartel banners addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel warned that Sinaloa Cartel gunmen would be targeting U.S. citizens.
Cartel gunmen in Mexico put up two banners addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel and other officials from the U.S. and Mexico, threatening U.S. citizens living in the Cabo San Lucas and San Jose areas. The threats point to the U.S. getting involved in the cartel’s turf war in Sinaloa and Baja California.
During a portion of an interview with CNN aired on Monday’s broadcast of “AC360,” an individual identified as a “senior cartel leader” within the Sinaloa Cartel, stated that the Trump administration has made the cartels’ job more difficult. CNN Senior
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is defending a federal lawmaker from her own political party who was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury for alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel. She dismissed the accusations as unproven and insisted Mexico would not investigate unless Washington provided concrete evidence.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury singled out several key leaders and businesses tied to the Mayos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, including a former mayor in the Mexican state of Baja California. The move targets accounts and money laundering operations, including hotels, restaurants, and bars in the popular beach destination of Rosarito, Baja California.
Two cartel-controlled states in Mexico cancelled their Independence Day celebrations on Monday in several of their communities over concerns of cartel attacks and violence. The cancellations come at a time when the U.S. government has labelled six Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
The ongoing scandal surrounding Mexico’s Navy and top government officials is expected to lead to more than 200 arrests. Two recent deaths within the naval institution have sparked widespread speculation about targeted killings to cover up or block the ongoing investigation.
Polish authorities, backed by anti-terror units, raided a clandestine meth lab near the German border last week, arresting three men—including two chemists allegedly tied to Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa Cartel. The bust underscores the cartel’s expanding global footprint and its designation by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization. Agents seized 300 liters of methamphetamine and three tons of precursor chemicals in what officials called one of the most significant synthetic drug operations ever uncovered in the region.
A group of ten state cops in the Mexican border state of Chihuahua claims that more than 80 Sinaloa Cartel gunmen overpowered them and beat them for some time before releasing them. Government officials have tried to deny the incident; however, some information points to the attack having been prompted by the theft of a drug load.
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials in New England say they arrested more than 170 members of the Sinaloa Cartel during a recent crackdown operation. The arrests led to the seizure of more than 22,000 counterfeit pills, fentanyl powder and packaging branded with the Sinaloa Cartel logo.
United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced the most significant federal seizure of drug precursor chemicals by federal law enforcement authorities in U.S. history during a Wednesday press conference in Pasadena, Texas. The precursor chemicals, seized in two separate maritime interdictions, were headed from China to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
The supreme leader of the Sinaloa Cartel has pleaded guilty to U.S. federal drug charges in connection with leading the most powerful drug cartel in the world. His plea has sparked much speculation in Mexico, where his expected cooperation could implicate some of the country’s highest-ranking political figures.
Doug Quets, the father of United States Marine Corps veteran Nicholas Quets, who was murdered in Mexico by Sinaloa Cartel members, is praising President Donald Trump’s actions against the Mexican Drug Cartels.
A recently extradited cartel boss from Mexico, who is facing numerous federal drug trafficking charges in Virginia, was a favored government contractor in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas. The state is controlled by the controversial governor from the MORENA party, Americo Villarreal.
Authorities in the southern part of Mexico arrested the entire police force of a small city over allegations that they were working for drug cartels. The raid comes at a time when Mexico continues to experience high levels of cartel violence nationwide.
Mexico’s government has once again sent over two dozen high-level cartel operators to the U.S. in an attempt to show cooperation with the Trump administration. The move comes just days after U.S. President Donald J. Trump threatened Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum with tariffs as a result of her country not having done enough to fight cartels.
