Violent deaths in Ciudad Juárez dropped to 800 last year, down from a peak of 3,622 in 2010—likely because the Sinaloa Cartel has finally crushed local rival, the Juárez Cartel.
A spate of shootouts between rival cartels and police forces left over 20 dead around the Christmas holiday in the Mexican states of Michoacán, Jalisco and Sinaloa.
Mexico has for the first time sent soldiers to patrol suburbs of the capital, following the slaying of a politician in Nezahualcóyotl—the latest in a wave of killings in the district.
Authorities from four countries cooperated in a months-long operation that led to the arrest in Venezuela of Daniel Barrera AKA "El Loco"—dubbed the "last of the great capos."
Mexican naval forces in the oil port of Tampico, Tamaulipas, on Sept. 13 arrested Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez AKA “El Coss“—notorious leader of the Gulf Cartel—along with five cohorts, apparently without resistance. Authorities hailed it as a major blow against the cartel,… Read moreMexico: blows against cartels claimed, bloodletting continues
The US is investigating possible money laundering through a Las Vegas casino company owned by US billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a major donor to the Republican Party.
The US government has determined that Bolivia now has fewer coca plantations but it is producing more cocaine because traffickers are using a more “efficient” process known as the “Colombian method,” according to an interview with a diplomat in La… Read moreBolivia: coca production down, cocaine production up?
Official figures reveal that narco-violence made 2017 the deadliest year in Mexico's modern history. The grim total surpassed that of 2011, when the militarized drug war of then-President Felipe Calderón led to 22,409 homicides. A total of 23,101 homicide investigations were opened in the first 11 months of 2017, according to figures from the Governance Ministry, which has been tracking the yearly kill count back to 1997. (Map: CIA)
