Mexico is home to some of the hemisphere’s largest, most sophisticated and violent organized criminal groups. These organizations have drawn from Mexico’s long history of smuggling and its close proximity to the United States, the world’s largest economy, to grow into a regional threat.
A transnational labor trafficking network brought dozens of individuals from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico to the United States under the guise of agricultural work only to exploit them using brutal…
A daring prison break in central Mexico was focused on freeing the leader of a relatively modest oil theft group, showing the importance of this criminal economy in parts of…
Winning a lottery prize of close to $1 million should have been a positive, life-changing event for a kindergarten and its community in Chiapas, Mexico. It was anything but.
Mexico is home to some of the hemisphere’s largest, most sophisticated and violent organized criminal groups. These organizations have drawn from Mexico’s long history of smuggling and its close proximity to the United States, the world’s largest economy, to grow into a regional threat. Their networks stretch from Argentina to Canada and even into Europe. They traffic in illegal drugs, contraband, arms and humans, and launder their proceeds through regional moneychangers, banks and local economic projects. Their armament, training and tactics have become increasingly sophisticated as the Mexican government has ramped up efforts to combat them.
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Mexico's criminal landscape has morphed in recent years from one dominated by a handful of powerful cartels into a fragmented web of nearly 200 criminal groups defined by fragile and fast-changing alliances. While the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco Cartel New Generation (CJNG) still dominate the scene, other upstart, hyperviolent groups have carved out a place for themselves through oil theft and other predatory crimes like extortion and kidnapping.
The arrest of the wife of CJNG boss El Mencho is being interpreted as a win against the cartel and a significant blow to the group's money laundering ability. But…
After yet another prison massacre, Ecuadorean authorities have doubled down on Mexico’s two biggest cartels being behind gang warfare in the South American nation by providing weapons and cash to…
The disgraced former governor of Chihuahua, César Duarte, may soon be on a flight home. A US judge approved his extradition back to Mexico to face charges of conspiracy and…
Criminal groups across western Mexico have increased their control of illegal logging, silencing landowners, government officials and even entire communities to ensure near-total impunity.
A recent seizure of fentanyl in Mexico has shed further light on the capacity of organized crime groups to mass-produce the deadly synthetic opioid. Still, the timing suggests US officials…
While contraband cigarettes are a mainstay across Latin America, Belize has confirmed its status as a major port of entry for illegal tobacco into Mexico.
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