Tag: mexico

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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Utah Oil Tycoon James Jensen and Wife Arrested in $300M Mexican Oil Smuggling Scheme — Feds Raid $9.2M Mansion with Battering Ram

Federal agents have arrested Utah oil magnate James Lael Jensen, his wife Kelly Anne Jensen, and two of their sons, Maxwell Sterling Jensen (aka “Max”) and Zachary Golden Jensen, in connection with a sprawling $300 MILLION smuggling and money laundering conspiracy tied to Mexican criminal organizations.

Court records reveal that all four members of the Jensen family were arrested on Wednesday, April 23 — with sons Max and Zachary taken into custody in the Rio Grande Valley, while James and Kelly Jensen were apprehended at their 26,893-square-foot mansion in Sandy, Utah, reportedly worth over $9.1 million.

The arrest was carried out by the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Apprehension Team, equipped with a battering ram and tactical gear, according to KSLTV.

“James Jensen conspired with his wife, Kelly Jensen, and two of his sons, Maxwell and Zachary Jensen, to launder proceeds from sales of illegally imported crude oil,” a warrant filed for James Jensen’s arrest states.

“The payments for this crude oil were directed to businesses in Mexico that operate only through the permission of Mexican criminal organization. James Jensen was aware that the payments he made were going to these Mexican criminal organizations.”

According to KRGV, ” Federal court records say that they have been ordered to report to the Brownsville federal courthouse by Thursday, May 8, where their sons have already made their initial court appearance.”

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Terrifying moment Mexican mayoral candidate is shot dead alongside three supporters including her daughter during live broadcast

A Mexican mayoral candidate was tragically shot dead alongside three of her supporters including her daughter during a live broadcast of her campaign rally.

Yesenia Lara Gutierrez, representing Mexico‘s ruling Morena party, was gunned down in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz on Sunday night as she greeted residents in the streets of Texistepec.

The horrifying incident was captured on a Facebook livestream, showing people running and screaming as gunshots rang out off camera. Mexican newspaper Reforma reported that the candidate was greeting ‘women with children in their arms’ when the gunfire began.

Footage posted online depicted the chaos, with at least 20 shots head in the clip that was still available on Gutierrez’s Facebook page the following day. Other images shared online appeared to show bodies in the street.

Veracruz Governor Rocio Nahle, also of the Morena party of President Claudia Sheinbaum, said Monday that Gutierrez’s daughter was among those killed by gunmen. 

‘No office or position is worth a person’s life,’ Nahle said in a press conference Monday, where she promised justice.  

Gutierrez had posted several images on Facebook, showing her campaigning throughout the region. ‘The strength of our youth is the vitality that motivates me to keep walking day by day,’ she wrote just hours before the shooting.

This marks the second killing of a mayoral candidate in Veracruz during the current election cycle, following the April 29 murder of German Anuar Valencia, also from Morena. 

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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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Gulf Cartel Operates Alternative Government in Mexican Border City

With almost complete impunity, the Gulf Cartel expanded its control in Tamaulipas to the point where it operates as an alternative government in the border city of Matamoros. Through this control, all businesses, including food vendors, flower shops, and even panhandlers, are required to pay a weekly protection fee to the Gulf Cartel. The cartel operates a massive database of the city’s commerce and even uses city officials to collect the funds.

This control is very convenient for local and state politicians who enjoy the narco-peace of sorts that comes from simply allowing the Gulf Cartel to operate undisturbed in exchange for keeping violence down and hiding its presence in the shadows. This control, while currently being overlooked by Mexico’s federal government since political allies control Tamaulipas, could spell trouble since the Trump Administration labelled the Gulf Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

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EPA Chief Visits San Diego, Calls for Urgent Action on Border Sewage Crisis

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin visited San Diego April 22, aiming for collaborative solutions and actions to end the Tijuana River sewage crisis.

The visit “is very important for us to make sure that we aren’t just seeing and hearing firsthand on the ground in Southern California,” Zelding said at the press conference, “but ensuring that the path forward is one of max collaboration and extreme urgency to end a crisis that should have ended a long time ago.”

Zeldin said his counterpart, the Mexican environmental secretary Alicia Bárcena, had conveyed in their meeting the evening of April 21, the willingness of the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, to “have a strong collaborative relationship” with the United States, “to finally solve the issue.”

The Tijuana River pollution has been ongoing for decades, but the crisis has worsened in recent years due to Tijuana’s rapidly growing population and the deterioration of its water treatment infrastructure.

Officials said that over the past five years, more than 100 billion gallons of sewage water have been discharged into the Tijuana River, which flows to the U.S. side and enters the Pacific Ocean, causing air odors, health concerns, and beach closures.

Amidst this, the Department of Defense inspector general found that some Navy SEAL candidates became ill while training in sewage-contaminated ocean water in San Diego’s South Bay.

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Two Mexican Nationals Busted in Colorado With 180,000 Rounds of Ammunition

Two Mexican nationals were arrested in Colorado last month after authorities found them transporting 180,000 rounds of ammunition during a traffic stop, federal officials have announced.

Caesar Ramon Martinez Solis, 41, and Humberto Ivan Amador Gavira, 24, were pulled over on March 26th in Cañon City, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado.

Detectives from Fremont County stopped their white Chevrolet van after it failed to dim its headlights, didn’t signal a turn, and had a broken license plate light, according to an arrest affidavit.

Inside the van, authorities found around 150 boxes of .308 ammunition and 30 boxes of 7.62 ammunition, with each box labeled as holding 1,000 rounds.

Martinez Solis waived his right to an attorney and spoke with Homeland Security agents.

He explained that he and Amador Gavira, whom he identified as his brother-in-law, had traveled from Mexico to Denver the day before to look at a vehicle.

They then drove to Salt Lake City, where they stopped at a gun shop, and Amador Gavira bought the ammunition, according to the affidavit.

“[Martinez Solis] further explained that he did not know the intent with the ammunition but that he believed it was destined for Pueblo,” the affidavit stated.

He added that the exact location was saved on Amador Gavira’s phone. Authorities have not publicly disclosed the destination.

Both men have been charged with unlawful possession of ammunition by an alien admitted under a nonimmigrant visa.

The case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

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