Mexican drug cartels

Mexican ex-security chief on trial: multimillion bribe claims and a cat named cocaine

The blockbuster trial of one of Mexico’s top former law enforcement officials is drawing toward its conclusion in a Brooklyn court, with the prosecution likely to rest its case next week after providing explosive accusations from convicted criminals but little in the way of hard evidence.

Genaro García Luna, who once led Mexico’s security ministry and its bloody war against powerful cartels, is standing trial accused of conspiring to traffic drugs into the US and of taking multimillion-dollar bribes from the violent Sinaloa cartel in exchange for impunity.

The trial of a former top Mexican law enforcement official got under way in a Brooklyn court on Monday, one of the most significant drug trafficking cases since the prosecution of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán more than four years ago.

Genaro García Luna, who ran Mexico’s version of the FBI before being appointed to lead the country’s security ministry – and therefore its war on drug trafficking groups – is accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for granting protection to the violent Sinaloa cartel.

JESÚS MARÍA, Mexico—In the predawn hours of Jan. 5, hundreds of Sinaloa cartel gunmen raced to this dusty town to try to rescue their boss from Mexican soldiers who had laid siege to his ranch, according to residents, gang members and Mexico’s military.

But the small army of gunmen proved no match for Mexico’s military, which used gunships to strafe the convoy of pickup trucks rigged with makeshift armor and high-caliber guns in the capture of Ovidio Guzmán, the son of former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, witnesses said.

Mexico’s new cartel queen comes from trafficking royalty. Not only is she the daughter-in-law of perhaps the most infamous drug lord of recent years, her father was a high-ranking Sinaloa enforcer until he was tortured and murdered.

Adriana Meza Torres, believed to be in her early 30s, is said to have established herself as a queenpin of Los Chapitos, a faction of the deadly Sinaloa cartel. Her husband, Ovidio Guzmán López, a son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, was captured in a gunfight this month that claimed the lives of 29 people, ten of them Mexican troops.

Meza Torres is flaunting her newfound power, calling herself “boss’s wife” on social media and demonstrating her wealth in a series of flashy posts and videos on sites such as TikTok. Her apparent elevation to the role has been long in the making.

Álvaro Arandas was approaching the check-in counter at Culiacán international airport when the pandemonium began.

“You could hear the shooting – huge blasts, so much noise,” said the Mexican businessman, who had planned to board a flight to the eastern city of San Luis Potosí.

Instead, Arandas found himself scrambling for cover as security forces and cartel gunmen fought for control of an airfield that had become the latest frontline of a Latin American drug conflict that claims tens of thousands of lives every year.

And the beat goes on …

Mexican authorities have captured Ovidio Guzmán, a son of incarcerated drugs kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, prompting a furious response from cartel gunmen in the northern city of Culiacán.

After a night of violence, gunmen exchanged fire with security forces, blocking roads with burning vehicles and shooting at army helicopters and police aeroplanes bringing reinforcements to the city.

According to one resident, heavy fighting raged for hours after Guzmán – a key figure in the Sinaloa cartel since the arrest of his father – was arrested early on Thursday.

With more than 26,000 murders this year, it is clear the president’s strategy of using the military to control the crime gangs has failed

The news came almost as fast as the bullets were fired: a judge murdered in cold blood; cartel members attempting a prison break; five people killed at a bar in a popular port city.

The surge in violence over a single weekend in Mexico brought a torrent of headlines that are increasingly familiar as powerful gangs battle for control of the country: shootouts, cars set on fire, bodies lying in the street.

The craziness is spreading into border states.

The butchered remains of three people washed ashore in Acapulco, Mexico, over the weekend — shocking beachgoers at the once-thriving holiday hotspot.

Gruesome photos show a body lying face-up on sun-soaked Condesa beach as tourists gawk and families wade in the water nearby.

I have no desire to visit Mexico for some reason.

Rev. Alfredo Gallegos, better known as Padre Pistolas to many in the Mexican state of Michoacan for his pro-self defense advocacy against cartel violence, has allegedly been suspended by the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico, and though officials have said nothing publicly about the reasons for the suspension, there’s really only one controversial position the pastor has taken; fight back against the drug cartels that are destroying the community.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s former attorney general was arrested Friday in connection with the violent abduction and likely massacre of 43 students in 2014, a significant breakthrough in one of the most notorious atrocities in modern Mexican history.

He is the first high-level official to be detained in connection to the case, and the authorities said Friday that they had also issued more than 80 arrest warrants related to it, including for military officers, police officers and cartel members.

It was not immediately clear if any of those warrants had led to other arrests, but their sudden announcement came just a day after the Mexican government said an official inquiry had found the disappearance of the students to be a “crime of the state” involving every layer of government.

A prison confrontation between members of two rival cartels spilled on to the streets of the border city Ciudad Juárez, where alleged gang members have killed nine more people, including four employees of a radio station.

The violence began on Thursday, when Los Chapos, members of the infamous Sinaloa cartel formerly led by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, clashed with the local group Los Mexicles, in a Juárez prison, the deputy security minister, Ricardo Mejía, said.