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Mexican police arrest members of drug gang behind the alleged killing of 8 people in Cancun
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Prosecutors said Monday they have arrested six members of a drug gang in the Mexican resort of Cancun that allegedly killed and hacked up five people with a machete, and dumped three other victims in a shallow grave.
The gang, which prosecutors say also engaged in extortion, was protected by a network of motorcycle taxis and minors who acted as lookouts.
Authorities also announced the arrest of 23 people on charges they operated a fake tour agency that served as a cover for drug sales in Cancun.
The suspects operated a call center in which they offered sports equipment and tour packages to tourists, but then failed to deliver them. On the second floor they had a complex operation in which drug deals were allegedly made over the phone and delivered by motorcycle.
Another suspect was arrested in Cancun who allegedly both ordered drugs on social media sites — which were delivered to him by express package service — and sold them also on social media, with home delivery included.
The revelations Monday came one day after prosecutors confirmed an American woman and a man from Belize were shot to death late last week in what appears to have been a dispute between drug dealers at a beach club in the resort city of Tulum, south of Cancun.
Prosecutors in Quintana Roo stressed the American woman had no connection to an alleged drug dealer also killed in the shooting Friday night. The woman appeared to have simply been caught in the crossfire.
Prosecutors said the dead man had cocaine and pills in his possession when he was killed, and was believed to be a dealer. They said the suspects in the shootings had been identified and were being sought.
The degree to which drugs are available in Mexico’s Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo is sometimes startling.
Last year, authorities shuttered 23 pharmacies at Caribbean coast resorts, six months after a research report warned that drug stores in Mexico were offering foreigners pills they passed off as Oxycodone, Percocet and Adderall without prescriptions.
Foreign tourists have been killed in the past after getting caught in drug gang shootouts in the once-tranquil beach resort.
In 2021 in Tulum, two tourists — one German and a California travel blogger born in India — were killed while eating at a restaurant. They apparently were caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival drug dealers.
Last year, the U.S. State Department issued a travel alert warning travelers to “exercise increased situational awareness” especially after dark, at Mexico’s Caribbean beach resorts like Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum.
Tourists, however, continue to stream into Mexico’s Caribbean coast, the country’s leading tourist destination. Mexico's tourism department released figures Monday showing foreign tourists spent almost $31 billion in all of Mexico in 2023, up 10% from 2022. About half of all foreigners visiting Mexico go to Cancun.
Mexico logs biggest meth lab raid under current admin
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican armed forces said on Monday they had dismantled a clandestine meth "mega-laboratory" in northern Sonora state, marking the largest drug laboratory busted under the current administration.
"This is the largest laboratory we have secured during the current administration and represents more than 50% of the drugs and precursors seized this year," Mexico's navy said in a statement on X, alongside photos showing large containers and white sacks at the rural camp near Rancho Viejo.
The navy said it had seized 4.13 metric tons (91,073 lb) of meth and 1.27 tons of precursor chemicals used to make the synthetic drug.
The site counted 72 laboratory reactors, it added, five times more than the 13 discovered at what was previously considered the country's largest clandestine lab, which had also been discovered in Sonora.
The U.S. has been pushing Mexico to crack down on drug trafficking, particularly fentanyl, even as leaked documents revealed the Mexican army revised up the number of drug lab raids it said it had conducted under the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is in his final year of office.
Mexico has meanwhile been pushing for the United States to take a firmer stance on the illicit trafficking of firearms from the United States to drug cartels across the border.
(Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez, Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Raul Cortes; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Kylie Madry and Sandra Maler)
Cartel Gunmen Shoot Up, Graffiti Mexican Border City Amid Turf War
Cartel gunmen stepped up their attacks against rivals in the ongoing turf war for control of key border cities in Tamaulipas. This increase in violence led to an increase in shootouts, targeted murders, murders of innocent bystanders, and the use of graffiti to show off their incursions.
The violence follows the arrest of a top leader with the Escorpiones faction of the Gulf Cartel. That faction had control of the city of Rio Bravo and would use it to launch attacks on the city of Reynosa, which is controlled by Los Metros.
Since the start of the week, the Gulf Cartel faction known as Los Metros began setting up roadblocks along the key entrances to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, as a way to keep law enforcement from interfering with their attacks on the border town of Rio Bravo. Additionally, days before, they began knocking down police cameras as a way to hide their troop movements as they prepared to move armored vehicles to the eastern part of Reynosa in preparation for the attacks. In total, the group destroyed 16 police cameras by either shooting at them or knocking them down with trucks.
Since Monday early morning, February 5, Los Metros began their attack on Rio Bravo, setting off widespread violence throughout the city. During one of their attacks, the gunmen shot and killed 30-year-old Jesus Sevillaja Marmolejo, an innocent farmer who was coming out of a local bar the gunmen were attacking.
After their attacks, Los Metros spray-painted houses and walls with the call signs of some key leaders to taunt their rivals and show they had entered the city.
The attacks in Rio Bravo also led to violence in Reynosa, where gunmen clashed with police forces who spotted them moving their convoys of gunmen. In response to the violence, school officials stopped their classes for several days as a precaution since, in recent days, one high school student had to be rushed to a hospital after being struck by a stray bullet.
The violence in Reynosa comes as the Tamaulipas government refuses to acknowledge the violence in the region and falsely claims that the region is safe.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
Gunmen Kidnap U.S. Citizen, Shoot Alleged DEA Agent’s Wife in Separate Attacks near Cancun
Authorities in Mexico are investigating the shooting of the wife of a retired DEA agent and the recent kidnapping of a U.S. citizen near Mexico’s Caribbean hotspot of Cancun. Mexican authorities reportedly tried to cover up one of the cases as a way to diminish the growing perception that violence has taken over the country.
The shooting of the woman took place on Friday night in the tourist area of Tulum, approximately 70 miles south of Cancun, in the state of Quintana Roo. According to the local news outlet NotiCaribe, the attack took place at a beach along the Tulum-Boca Paila highway. Local authorities tried to cover up the attack where one woman, who they claim is the wife of a retired DEA agent living in Cancun, was shot, the outlet reported. A second victim described only as a male sustained gunshot wounds, however, additional details have not been released. U.S. officials have not provided any information to confirm or deny the incident.
The shooting comes just days after Mexico’s military rescued a U.S. citizen from New York who had relocated to Quintana Roo and had been kidnapped. The victim spent three days in captivity before the rescue operation took place. Authorities revealed that the kidnapping was ransom-related as the gunmen sought to collect approximately $15,000 USD from the victim’s relatives.
As Breitbart Texas reported, the once peaceful region of Mexico’s Caribean coast has become a hotspot for violence as rival criminal organizations fight for control of lucrative drug trafficking routes into Mexico and the lucrative drug distribution for the large number of tourists that continue to visit.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
Oregon County Declares State of Emergency After 4 Fentanyl Overdoses in 6 Hours
Emergency personnel in a small Oregon city had to respond to four separate fentanyl overdoses in a span of just six hours on Tuesday. By the next day, the entire county was placed in a state of emergency due to the prominence of the deadly drug.
Officials in Bend — a city of about 100,000 people, more than three hours south of Portland — first responded to a fentanyl overdose around 8:00 a.m. at Second Street and Franklin Avenue, KTVZ reported.
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U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, Urban AffairsJust before 1:00 p.m., police found two more people overdosing on fentanyl in the parking lot of a Jimmy John’s sandwich shop.
Only 46 minutes had elapsed by the time police had to again respond to the area of the first overdose to aid someone else also suffering from fentanyl poisoning.
All four individuals survived with the help of Narcan administered by first responders, according to the local news station.
The life-saving overdose reversal drug has been carried by Bend police and numerous other law enforcement agencies around the country due to the uptick in fentanyl usage in recent years. In October 2023, the Biden administration urged schools across the nation to stock up on Narcan.
In this September 12, 2019, file photo, a police officer holds a box of Narcan, a drug used to treat opioid overdoses. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
In a letter from U.S. Secretary of Education Michael Cardona and National Drug Control Policy Director Rahul Gupta to school administrators, it was stated that the number of fatal drug overdoses in 2022 was “unacceptably high” at 107,000.
“In the midst of this fentanyl overdose epidemic, it is important to focus on measures to prevent youth drug use and ensure that every school has naloxone and has prepared its students and faculty to use it,” the officials wrote, using the generic name of the drug.
The four overdoses taking place in such a short period “stretched” Bend Fire & Rescue’s resources to the brink, KTVZ reported, citing EMS Chief Drew Norris.
“For a typical overdose call, they respond with an ambulance and two engines,” Norris said.
Following Bend’s crisis on Tuesday, Deschutes County commissioners voted to enact a 90-day countywide fentanyl state of emergency, closely echoing the one declared in Portland by Gov. Tina Kotek (D-OR) on January 30.
“We have fentanyl everywhere and our young people are dying,” said Patti Adair, Deschutes County Commission Chair. “We need to solve this problem.”
“Now is the time for action. We’re experiencing a crisis and need the community to understand how dangerous this is,” said Deschutes County Commissioner Tony DeBone. “We need the community to come together and look out for one another. This is getting worse every day.”
Commissioner Phil Chang abstained from the vote due to the response strategy not being “fully developed.”
“We are absolutely having a crisis,” Chang said. “However, I am abstaining from today’s vote because I don’t think our next steps have been fully developed. I want to better understand what actions the County is prepared to take.”
While the order doesn’t actually include any official new policies or resources, commissioners DeBone and Adair voted for the declaration due to the increased awareness it will bring to the issue.
Both commissioners have lobbied the state legislature in recent days to make changes to Measure 110, the drug decriminalization act that Oregonians now largely want reversed after seeing dastardly effects in the three years since it passed.
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