In recent years, international cartels moving cocaine, arms and laundered money have installed themselves in key transshipment locations in Latin America and the Caribbean. As their franchises expanded, they have converted several countries into global crime hubs.
MEXICO CITY – At least 37 people were killed Friday in a gunfight with federal police in a western Mexico region hit by cartel violence, in one of the bloodiest clashes in the country's drug war.
MONTERREY, Mexico — The attack that burned 52 people to death at a casino in an upscale neighborhood was bad. But what really scared Idalia Villafana's customers away were the body parts once strewn across the plaza near her restaurant.
MEXICO CITY – Armed with rocket-propelled grenades to bring down an army helicopter and with ties to gangs as far afield as Asia, the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel and its shadowy boss have grown into Mexico's newest menace.
MEXICO CITY — Gunmen shot down a Mexican military helicopter Friday in the western state of Jalisco, killing three soldiers, and set fire to buses, blocked roads and attacked banks and gas stations in a sharp escalation of anti-government violence.
One of the banners is signed CJNG, the Spanish initials of the New Generation Drug Cartel. It states that it supports the population and its only problem is with their enemies, the Zetas and Knights Templar cartels, and "abusive" authorities.
Authorities say the assault appeared to be in revenge over the arrest of gang suspects in an investigation into a failed assassination attempt against Jalisco's state security commissioner on March 30.
TUMBISCATIO, Mexico – He traveled by four-wheeler and on horseback. He lived in caves and on secluded mountain ranches, surrounded by his bodyguards and logistics men who kept his meth-dealing cartel dominant for years in the western state of Michoacán. When authorities finally caught up with Servando Gómez Martínez, they got him with chocolate cake.
In a 16-page report, the Argentine team, hired by the victims' families as independent investigators, cited several problems in the government's investigation, including lax security at the site and the procedures by which the evidence was collected and interpreted.
ACAPULCO, Mexico – Mexican police launched a manhunt Friday for the owner of an abandoned crematorium after 60 bodies, including children, were found rotting in the facility that closed a year ago in Acapulco.
