#mexico-cartel-violence

#mexico-cartel-violence

Andrew Pritchard initially smuggled cocaine for the UK club scene using hard-sided suitcases packed with concealed drugs and decoy luggage to evade airport security.

That's the moment when I realized this is going to be extremely complicated for us to make sense of," Jan-Albert Hootsen, the Mexican representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said. The complication: People were running and seemed panicked in the airport of Mexico's second-largest city, but there was no gunfire or siege, the airport's official account tweeted.

The ability of criminal groups to exercise this type of power and exercise this type of violence is closely linked to firearms trafficking, said Cecilia Farfan-Mendez, an expert on Mexican organised crime. If we want to see less violence in Mexico, this is a very important conversation.

Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho, consolidated one of Mexico's most powerful criminal organisations in part due to a unique franchise-based structure. According to the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the CJNG maintains a presence in every state of Mexico, with varying levels of influence, and operates in more than 40 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa, and throughout the US.

What comes next will not resemble a clean succession. It will be a struggle over who holds the center of gravity inside the organization, and that result is not preordained. Many Mexicans fear a troubling third scenario: a bloody power struggle that fragments the cartel, opening new fronts of conflict in an already volatile criminal landscape.

Juan Carlos Valencia González has emerged as a key contender to take over the $20 billion criminal empire after "El Mencho" died in a Mexican special forces raid on Sunday. The 41-year-old is the slain chief's stepson. According to law enforcement, his mother Rosalinda "La Jefa" González Valencia was married to the drug kingpin and was a major player on the financial side of the cartel.

Mexico has sent another 37 alleged members of Mexican criminal organisations to the United States, the country's security minister said, amid US President Donald Trump's threat of ground attacks against drug cartels in the region. The handover of alleged drug cartel members on Tuesday is the third major transfer to the US in the past year and brings the total number of suspects transferred to 92.

In separate operations across three statesSinaloa, Sonora, and Guerreroauthorities reported the seizure of more than 41,000 liters and 12 tons of chemicals to be used in drug production. The announcement includes the dismantling of a clandestine laboratory in Guerrero and 11 other methamphetamine production sites in Sonora. In Sonora, between the towns of Culiacan and Mexicali, a vehicle containing 212 kilograms of methamphetamine was seized by the Army and the National Guard.

Their attackers had tried to burn them to cover their tracks, but the double femicide left no doubt: it bore the mark of the Tren de Aragua criminal organization. In the wake of the crime, investigations and news reports about the Venezuelan gang followed. And arrests began. Although the Mexico City Security Secretariat tried to downplay its role, police operations proved that this criminal network, after spreading across the continent, was already operating in Mexico.