Tag: cartels

Carlos Lehder reveals: Fidel and Raúl Castro facilitated Medellín Cartel drug trafficking from Cuba in the 1980s.

Carlos Lehder, co-founder of the Medellín Cartel and former ally of Pablo Escobar, has dropped a bombshell that the left and progressives don’t want to hear: the Cuban regime, led by Fidel and Raúl Castro, was a key ally in trafficking cocaine to the United States in the 1980s.

This truth, revealed exclusively by Martí Noticias, shatters the image of Cuba as a supposed revolutionary model and exposes the corruption and cynicism of a government that conservatives have always denounced.

While progressives in the U.S. and Europe were busy praising Castro, this regime was helping flood the streets with drugs, lining their pockets and betraying their own people.

Lehder is direct in pointing out the culprits. In his memoirs and interviews, he states:

I met with Raúl Castro and Colonel Antonio de la Guardia to negotiate the logistics of these operations.

He details how Cuba opened its doors to the Medellín Cartel, setting up airstrips in Cayo Largo and charging for every kilo of cocaine that passed through the island. And he leaves no doubt about who was in charge:

Fidel Castro had to know; he was the orchestra conductor.

This isn’t gossip; it’s the testimony of a drug trafficker who lived the business from the inside and now exposes the hypocrisy of the Castros.

For Republicans, this comes as no surprise. We’ve always seen the Cuban regime as a nest of opportunists who crush their people while engaging in dirty business. While the left romanticizes Fidel and Raúl, Lehder reveals the reality:

I was allowed to use facilities in Cayo Largo, where airstrips were set up and a payment was agreed upon for each kilo of cocaine transported.

That drug made its way to the streets, killing young people, all under a government that progressives defended as a «victim» of imperialism. What irony.

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CARTEL HUNTING SEASON: Two Top Mexican Federal Officials Murdered in the Capital, President Claudia Sheinbaum Confirms

While President Claudia Sheinbaum continues to refuse permission for US forces to go after the Cartels in their territory, and does not act against them, the criminal organizations have opened a veritable hunting season of politicians.

2024 saw a record 661 attacks on people and facilities related to politics, and this year also maintains the horrific pace.

A mayoral candidate in the southern state of Guerrero; the mayor of Cotija in Michoacán state; the mayor of Guerrero’s capital, Chilpancingo, was decapitated; a high-ranking the governing party, was shot and killed in Veracruz; a female mayoral candidate and her daughter gunned down in a livestream – the list goes on.

Now, the hitlist is getting closer and close to the president: a visibly shaken Sheinbaum confirmed today that Ximena Guzmán and José Muñoz, her secretary and advisor, were murdered in Mexico City.

“It is very relevant, that is why we were communicating with the secretary. We had information, but it has already been confirmed. The head of government, Clara Brugada, just issued an informational card.

The government of Mexico City reports that unfortunately, the personal secretary of the head of government, Jimena Guzmán, and José Muñoz, an advisor to the head of government, lost their lives during a direct attack on Calzada de Tlalpan and Napoleon Street in the Moderna neighborhood of the Benito Juárez borough.

Personnel from the Citizen Security Secretariat and the Attorney General’s Office, both of Mexico City, with the support of the government of Mexico.

From the very beginning, Omar gave instructions to ensure they have all the support from the National Intelligence Center, from the Subsecretariat of Intelligence of the Secretariat, and of course from the Secretariat of Defense and Navy, all the support that the head of government needs for the investigation to get to the bottom of this situation, that there is no impunity.

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Three American Advisors Gunned Down at a Mexican Taco Stand in Targeted Attack

Authorities in Mexico are investigating the targeted shooting deaths of two security advisors with ties to the U.S. government and the serious injury of a third, following a violent attack in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, late Friday night.

According to the Jalisco State Attorney General’s Office, the victims were Carlos Amador Chavela and Cesar Gustavo Guzman Gonzalez.

A third man, identified as Pablo Cajigal Del Angel, survived the attack but sustained serious injuries.

All three had been working in Mexico as law enforcement trainers and advisors.

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DEA Blames Legal Marijuana States For Inadvertently Aiding Cartels While Also Admitting That Prohibition States Create Illegal Market Opportunities

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says that states that have legalized marijuana are providing cover for illicit cultivation operations by foreign cartels—while at the same time implicitly acknowledging that ongoing prohibition in other states creates opportunities for that cannabis to be sold on the illegal market.

The agency’s 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment that was released on Thursday includes a section on marijuana trafficking, claiming that cartels and other organized crime groups “operate under business registrations granted by state licensing authorities in jurisdictions where marijuana cultivation and sales are ‘legal’ at the state level.”

“However, absent overt evidence such as the trafficking of marijuana across state lines or the commission of non-drug crimes such as money laundering and human trafficking, it can be difficult for law enforcement to immediately identify violations or discover an illegal grow,” the report says. “Asian [Transnational Criminal Organizations, or TSOs] defy restrictions on plant quantities, production quotas, and non-licensed sales, and hide behind state-by-state variations in laws governing plant counts, registration requirements, and accountability practices.”

DEA suggested that cartels are leveraging state cannabis markets by transporting “large amounts of marijuana directly from ‘legal’ states to states that have not legalized recreational use and those where state-level recreational approval is sufficiently recent to not yet have an established, regulated cannabis industry.”

Underlying that analysis seems to be a perhaps inadvertent acknowledgment by DEA that cartels are profiting off ongoing prohibition outside of legal states—indicating that the main demand for illicit marijuana isn’t coming from within states that provide regulated access to consumers but instead those where cannabis remains criminalized.

Implicit in that analysis is exactly what advocates have long argued: Legalization disrupts the illegal market.

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Influencer Valeria Márquez is murdered live in Jalisco, sparking cartel rumors, alleged romantic links, and growing public pressure on authorities.

The Jalisco State Attorney General’s Office denied that Ricardo Ruíz, alias “El Tripa,” a known hitman of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), had ordered the murder, according to early investigations.

Authorities stated that, so far, Ruíz Velasco’s name does not formally appear in the case file and has not been mentioned in any of the testimonies gathered.

Nonetheless, despite the Jalisco Prosecutor’s denial, social media users continue to claim that Valeria Márquez had some type of connection to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), and are calling on the authorities in charge of the case to thoroughly investigate any possible links so that those responsible can be identified and brought to justice.

This omission by the authorities raises serious questions: Are they afraid to take action against organized crime? Are they being threatened by the cartel? Or is there complicity within the very institutions meant to uphold the law?

The lack of solid answers and the apparent inaction only deepen public mistrust and reinforce the perception that the cartels operate under protection and impunity. While Mexico burns in violence, leftist governments seem more concerned with speeches than with taking real action.

The fatal attack took place at 6:30 p.m. at ‘Blossom The Beauty Lounge’, Valeria’s own salon, located in the Real del Carmen neighborhood.

A man posing as a delivery driver entered the salon and shot her three times—in the skull, chest, and torso. The young woman, who had over 90,000 followers on TikTok, collapsed in front of her camera as her fans watched in horror.

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Sinaloa cartel leaders charged with narco-terrorism after authorities seize nearly 2 tons of fentanyl

Two leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel were hit with narco-terrorism charges on Tuesday for their involvement in allegedly trafficking “massive” amounts of drugs into the United States, according to federal officials.

Pedro Inzunza Noriega and his son, Pedro Inzunza Coronel, were both named in an unsealed federal indictment on Tuesday and charged with narco-terrorism, material support of terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering as members of the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO), which is a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Five other BLO leaders were charged with drug trafficking and money laundering.

The charges come after the Trump administration designated the Sinaloa Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on Feb. 20.

Prosecutors alleged in court documents that Noriega works closely with his son to both produce and “aggressively traffic” fentanyl into the United States.

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Trump ramps up push for U.S. strikes in Mexico as drug cartels fight each other

President Donald Trump has escalated his public calls for military action against the Mexican drug cartels as they face intense infighting and struggle to adapt to his military buildup at the southern border. Though Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has resisted direct American military intervention, Trump has renewed the push as the situation appears ripe for some kind of decisive action.

American troops have not been deployed to Mexico for combat purposes since 1916, in pursuit of Mexican bandit/revolutionary Pancho Villa following his attack on Columbus, New Mexico. Led by Brigadier General John J. “Blackjack” Pershing, the 10,000-strong expeditionary force failed to capture Villa and withdrew in 1917.

Sheinbaum, over the weekend, said that Trump had offered to deploy American military personnel to Mexico to help her combat the cartels, but that she had refused him.

“How can we help you fight drug trafficking? I propose that the United States military come in and help you,” she quoted him as saying. “And you know what I said to him? ‘No, President Trump.’” She further said that Mexican “sovereignty is not for sale” and that she had told him “we can work together, but you in your territory and us in ours.”

Trump himself confirmed that he had made the offer on Monday, but said “she is so afraid of the cartels she can’t even think straight.”

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Mexican Federal Agent Killed After Testifying in U.S. Trial of Drug Lord’s Son

A highly decorated Mexican federal police officer and his wife died during a targeted attack by gunmen in Mexico. The murder came just weeks after it became known that his testimony in a U.S trial had helped seal the fate of the son of the leader of Cartel Jalisco New Generation. The drug lord’s son received a life term in prison.

Last week, authorities in Mexico confirmed the murder of  Ivan Morales and his wife as they travelled in their personal vehicle in Morelos State, about 100 kilometers away from Mexico City.

Mexican authorities are investigating the case. Politicians and pundits in Mexico have been quick to make the connection that Morales had been a key witness in last year’s U.S. trial against Ruben “El Menchito” Oseguera Gonzalez. El Menchito is the son of Mexico’s most violent cartel kingpin, Ruben Nemesio “El Mencho Oseguera Cervantes, the leader of Cartel Jalisco New Generation. Earlier this year, El Menchito received a life sentence in prison for his role in his father’s criminal empire.

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Mexican Senator Brands President Sheinbaum as ‘Liar’ with Ties to Cartels

Mexican Senator Lilly Tellez (PAN-Sonora) blasted President Claudia Sheinbaum, demanding she “stop telling lies.” The senator accused her country’s president of having a close association with several lawyers who represent drug cartels during a fiery speech to the Mexican Senate.

The Senator representing the Mexican State of Sonora is routinely critical of President Sheinbaum’s seemingly soft approach to fighting organized crime in Mexico. Maria Lilly Del Carmen Tellez García, professionally known as “Lilly Tellez,” is a Mexican politician who was first elected as a senator in 2018 under the Morena Party. In 2019, Tellez left the Morena Party, and in 2020, she joined the National Action Party (PAN). She became an openly vocal critic of the Mexican government, often claiming with receipts that they are in bed with the cartels.

In June 2022, Breitbart Texas reported that the senator lashed out against the ruling party, saying, “How am I going to face off against the senator from Sinaloa, knowing she has all the support of the Gulf Cartel, and El Chapo’s Cartel?”

Tellez added, “How can we face off against you when you have the full support of the cartels, the mafia, knowing full well that once we get out of here we can be attacked by those criminals who are helping you to operate in the elections –this is having bravery and civic responsibility.”

Tellez stated that the decision to abandon the Morena Party was made when former President Manuel López Obrador, commonly referred to as AMLO, traveled to Badiraguato, Sinaloa, to shake hands with the mother of convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in 2020. Before becoming a politician, Tellez was well-known as an investigative journalist for TV Azteca, Mexico’s second-largest mass media company.

As an investigative reporter, Tellez conducted several investigations involving the Arellano-Felix Cartel. She also produced two documentaries denouncing Samuel Del Villar, a government official from Mexico City, as corrupt. On June 22, 2020, her car was shot at eight times by a group of unknown men. She survived the attack without injury. A bullet was discovered to have hit her seat belt buckle and caused the trajectory of the bullet to change course, possibly saving her life. As is often the case in Mexico, no suspects were ever arrested, and the case was closed.

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46 Honduran nationals working for Sinaloa Drug Cartel arrested on drug trafficking charges in Portland, Oregon

Federal and local law enforcement agencies arrested 46 Honduran nationals on drug trafficking charges in Portland, Oregon, following an extensive joint operation to disrupt open-air drug markets in Multnomah County. Authorities seized an array of illicit drugs, firearms, and cash. The Honduran nationals were reportedly working on behalf of the Mexican Sinaloa Drug Cartel, a designated foreign terror group, according to a press release.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Seattle Field Division said that the apprehended “Honduran drug traffickers” flooded the Portland area with “deadly fentanyl and other drugs.” The enforcement operation that netted 46 arrests occurred in the first four months of 2025.

In total, authorities seized 44 pounds of fentanyl powder; 2,507 fentanyl pills; 22 pounds of methamphetamine; nine pounds of cocaine; two pounds of heroin; 20 firearms; and $204,007 in cash, according to the DEA.

“The fentanyl seized by our team in this case could have yielded over 1.5 million lethal doses – enough to kill everyone in Portland twice,” said David F. Reames, Special Agent in Charge, DEA Seattle Field Division. “I am proud that DEA could help our partners bring this surge to a successful conclusion, saving lives here in Portland and throughout Oregon.”

According to the DEA, nearly 70 percent of all drug poisonings and overdose deaths involve fentanyl, and just two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a potentially deadly overdose.

Portland, a self-declared sanctuary city for illegal immigrants, is among the highest in the nation for fentanyl overdose deaths, as stated in a 2024 CDC report. The operation comes after the state of Oregon re-criminalized illicit drug possession last year following a failed 2020 drug decriminalization ballot measure that resulted in an increase in overdose deaths and open-air drug use on city streets, according to data.

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