Mexican drug cartel

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Rim Fire May Have Started on Illegal Pot Farm: Official

California's national parks are full of them, say authorities

(Newser) - A fire chief in California's Tuolumne County quietly revealed an interesting tidbit about the origins of the Rim Fire last week, the San Jose Mercury News reports: officials suspect it was started by marijuana growers. "We don't know the exact cause," he told a town meeting,...

Mexican Drug Cartel, US Prison Gang Plotted Merger

La Familia, Mexican Mafia deal would have opened 'superhighway' for meth, guns

(Newser) - Authorities say they've thwarted a massive multinational business merger in Southern California—between Mexican drug cartel La Familia Michoacana and US prison gang Mexican Mafia. "This would have opened a superhighway for drugs and guns and given this cartel an exclusive franchise," says US attorney Andre Birotte...

How a Lone, Violence-Weary Snitch Felled Mexico Boss

Inside the capture of Teodoro 'El Teo' Garcia Simental

(Newser) - In the wake of the capture of a major Mexican crime boss last week, the Los Angeles Times has the untold story of a similar bust three years ago—when savage drug kingpin Teodoro "El Teo" Garcia Simental was brought down by an insider who was just tired of...

Mexico Nabs Zetas Kingpin
 Sadistic Zetas Kingpin Nabbed 

Sadistic Zetas Kingpin Nabbed

Cartel boss captured without a fight in Mexico

(Newser) - Mexican security forces have scored a massive victory with the capture of a cartel leader blamed for many of the drug war's worst atrocities. Miguel Angel Trevino, the Zetas boss also known as "40" and "Death," was captured when Mexican marines intercepted his pickup truck with...

Cancun Cops Probe Grisly Murders of 7

Strangled victims were 'independent drug dealers,' officials say

(Newser) - Police in the Mexican vacation hotspot of Cancun have arrested seven suspects after finding five men and two women murdered in a shack, Reuters reports. Six victims had been strangled to death and a seventh had been decapitated. "It looks like the victims were independent drug dealers without any...

Mexican Drug Cartels Push Deep Into US
 Mexican Cartels 
 Push Deep Into US 
investigation

Mexican Cartels Push Deep Into US

Cartels increasingly sending agents beyond the border

(Newser) - Mexican drug cartels have long dispatched agents to border states, but a new AP investigation finds that operatives are now infiltrating much deeper into the US, with problems arising in areas from the Chicago suburbs to rural North Carolina. Typically, middlemen have been used to smuggle drugs over the border...

Mexico: Calderon Drug War Spawned 60 New Cartels

New AG says just 10 big ones existed when Calderon took office

(Newser) - The bloody war President Felipe Calderon launched in 2006 to squash Mexico's big drug cartels instead created scores of smaller ones, the country's new attorney general says. "I would calculate there are between 60 and 80 (new cartels), both medium-sized and small," Jesus Murillo told Mexican...

25K Missing in Mexican Drug War
 25K Missing 
 in Mexican 
 Drug War 
leaked list

25K Missing in Mexican Drug War

Leaked list arrives day before Calderon's exit

(Newser) - More than 100,000 murders were recorded in Mexico during Felipe Calderon's presidency—and now, a day before he leaves office, a staggering new figure has emerged. Some 25,000 people have gone missing over the past six years, according to an unreleased list by the country's attorney...

Mexico: Slain Beauty Queen Had Gun in Her Hands

But investigators suspect she was used as human shield

(Newser) - A Mexican beauty queen killed in a shootout between suspected drug traffickers and soldiers likely was being used as a human shield, a federal official says. Maria Susana Flores Gamez, crowned 2012 Woman of Sinaloa in February, came out of the car first with a gun in her hands during...

Mexican Beauty Queen Killed in Shootout

20-year-old may have fired back at army

(Newser) - A Mexican beauty queen was shot dead in a gun battle between the military and the drug traffickers she was traveling with, a crime that echoed a recent hit Mexican movie. The body of Maria Susana Flores Gamez, the 20-year-old winner of a statewide beauty contest in Sinaloa, was found...

2-Year-Old Mass Graves Uncovered in Mexico

Bodies of 11 men found in them, near US-Mexico border

(Newser) - Mexican authorities have discovered 19 bodies—some old, some new—near the US border. Eleven of the bodies were found in mass graves, where they appear to have rested for two years, officials say. Those bodies were buried amid intense fighting between drug cartels in the area, near Ciudad Juarez,...

Mexico Nabs Cartel Leader: Officials

Alleged local Zetas boss said to have ties with cartel's top commander

(Newser) - Mexico has arrested an alleged local leader of the violent Zetas drug cartel, which has taken control of much of Coahuila state, the country's navy says. Said Omar Juarez was captured in the state's capital, Saltillo, with weapons and what appeared to be cocaine and marijuana, the navy'...

Attempt to Scale Border Fence Goes Poorly

Border patrol assumes it was a smuggling operation gone wrong

(Newser) - Suspected smugglers who tried to use ramps to drive an SUV over a 14-foot-tall border fence had to abandon their plan when the Jeep became stuck on top of the barrier. Agents patrolling the US-Mexico border near the Imperial Sand Dunes in California's southeast corner spotted the Jeep Cherokee...

To Prove Zetas Boss Is Dead: Dig Up His Parents?

Lazcano body was whisked away, so cops need parents' DNA for ID

(Newser) - Mexican officials are considering exhuming the remains of the parents of killed Los Zetas cartel boss Heriberto Lazcano. Mexico announced earlier this month that Lazcano had been shot down by Marines. But his body was spirited out of a funeral where it was being held, reports the BBC . Now officials...

America's New Meth Source: Mexican Cartels

80% of US-sold meth is from Mexico: DEA

(Newser) - With US authorities battling stateside meth makers, Mexican "superlabs" are stepping in to take advantage of a shrunken supply. Cartels are sending purer, cheaper methamphetamine across the border—so much of it that 80% of the stuff now sold in the US is from Mexico, the Drug Enforcement Administration...

Mexico Cops: Gunmen Stole Corpse of Cartel Leader

Lazcano may be dead, but his body is gone

(Newser) - Mexico's military says it killed one of the most notorious cartel leaders in the country. It might have a problem convincing everyone, though, because gunmen broke into a funeral home this morning and stole the body, reports the AP . But prior to that brazen raid, authorities said the corpse'...

Mexico: Zetas Boss Killed in Firefight

'Executioner' Lazcano blamed for hundreds of killings

(Newser) - The leader of the bloodthirsty Zetas drug cartel has apparently been killed in a firefight with marines in the northern border state of Coahuila, the Mexican navy said yesterday. The navy said there was strong evidence the body of one of two men killed in the shootout was Heriberto Lazcano,...

Mexico Captures 'El Taliban' Cartel Boss

Zetas arrest could end surge in massacres

(Newser) - Mexico appears to have struck a major blow against one faction of the hyper-violent Zetas cartel. The country's navy says it has captured one of the country's most-wanted drug traffickers, Ivan Velazquez Caballero, known as "El Taliban." The drug lord has been fighting a bloody internal...

Mexican Teen Hitman Suspected in 50 Murders

Alleged cartel assassin Francisco Miguel N., age 16, is arrested

(Newser) - Initially, police arrested Francisco Miguel N. for carrying a gun and drugs. But once he was in custody, the 16-year-old from Sinola made a confession: He was an assassin for Los Mazatlecos, a criminal group attached to the Beltran Leyva drug cartel. Now prosecutors believe the teen participated in at...

Mexico Nabs Gulf Cartel Boss 'Fatso'

Arrest seen as major blow to fading drug war power

(Newser) - In a huge victory for President Felipe Calderón, Mexican authorities have arrested the head of the infamous Gulf Cartel: Mario Cardenas, alias "Fatso." Marines captured Cardenas in a raid in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas on Monday, and authorities showed him off to the media yesterday, Reuters...

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