Sinaloa Cartel

SAN DIEGO - Alleged drug kingpin Victor Emilio Cazares, among the most wanted trafficking suspects in the United States, has been arrested in Mexico, U.S. and Mexican officials say, despite having changed his appearance through plastic surgery. A senior U.S. law enforcement official in Mexico confirmed this week that Cazares was captured April 8 at a highway checkpoint near the western city of Guadalajara. Mexican authorities on Friday confirmed Cazares was in custody. Mexican authorities did not make the arrest public at the time, and it has not been previously reported.

SAN DIEGO - Alleged drug kingpin Victor Emilio Cazares, among the most wanted trafficking suspects in the United States, has been arrested in Mexico, U.S. and Mexican officials say, despite having changed his appearance through plastic surgery. A senior U.S. law enforcement official in Mexico confirmed this week that Cazares was captured April 8 at a highway checkpoint near the western city of Guadalajara. Mexican authorities on Friday confirmed Cazares was in custody. Mexican authorities did not make the arrest public at the time, and it has not been previously reported.

First of four parts Reporting from Calexico, Calif. -- N ever lose track of the load. It was drilled into everybody who worked for Carlos “Charlie” Cuevas. His drivers, lookouts, stash house operators, dispatchers -- they all knew. When a shipment was on the move, a pair of eyes had to move with it. Cuevas had just sent a crew of seven men to the border crossing at Calexico, Calif. The load they were tracking was cocaine, concealed in a custom-made compartment inside a blue 2003 Honda Accord.

Sixty reputed members of an Iraqi drug-trafficking organization in El Cajon have been arrested and authorities seized more than $630,000 in cash, 3,500 pounds of marijuana, dozens of high-powered firearms and several explosive devices, law enforcement officials said Thursday. The organization was run out of a social club and has suspected links to the ruthless Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico and an Iraqi organized crime syndicate in Detroit, according to law enforcement officials. The social club, located on East Main Street, has been a "hub of criminal activity conducted by Iraqi organized crime," El Cajon police Chief Pat Sprecco said.

Second of four parts G abriel Dieblas Roman took orders from cartel bosses in Mexico, hard men who ruled by fear, but he wouldn't approve a shipment without talking to a plucky, middle-aged woman from Compton. Guadalupe "Lupita" Villalobos ran a storefront botanica where Virgin of Guadalupe statuettes sat beside grinning Saint Death skeletons. She would threaten to turn neighbors into toads, and her clients believed she could divine the future by studying snail shells scattered on a tabletop.

The Justice Department announced Wednesday that authorities had arrested more than 730 people across the country in a 21-month investigation targeting Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel and its infiltration into U.S. cities. The arrests, including 50 on Wednesday in California, Minnesota, Maryland and the nation's capital, come amid growing concern in Washington that Mexican crime organizations are out of control and threaten the stability of parts of Mexico and the safety of U.S. citizens.

In nine months of actions against the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, Mexican authorities have taken down three of its four most-wanted suspects. The latest is Sergio Villarreal Barragan, a scowling figure known as "El Grande," who was captured Sunday along with two other suspects at a luxury home in the central city of Puebla. Villarreal's capture marks another big blow against the reeling Beltran Leyva organization, which a year ago was considered one of the most formidable drug-trafficking organizations in Mexico.

Two former top officials in Mexico's Interpol offices were charged with aiding a drug cartel in exchange for money, the attorney general's office announced. Ricardo Gutierrez Vargas and Rodolfo de la Guardia Garcia, who have been under house arrest since November, were transferred to federal prison. De la Guardia allegedly accepted payments of $10,000 a month from the Sinaloa cartel to place officers sympathetic to the cartel in key positions. Gutierrez Vargas is accused of giving the cartel confidential information in exchange for unspecified payments.

Sixty reputed members of an Iraqi drug-trafficking organization in El Cajon have been arrested and authorities seized more than $630,000 in cash, 3,500 pounds of marijuana, dozens of high-powered firearms and several explosive devices, law enforcement officials said Thursday. The organization was run out of a social club and has suspected links to the ruthless Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico and an Iraqi organized crime syndicate in Detroit, according to law enforcement officials. The social club, located on East Main Street, has been a "hub of criminal activity conducted by Iraqi organized crime," El Cajon police Chief Pat Sprecco said.

Federal authorities today announced dozens of indictments against people believed responsible for shipping multiple tons of narcotics into the United States and distributing them to cities and neighborhoods around the country. Among those charged in the indictments were three reputed leaders of Mexico's most violent trafficking organizations. Today's announcement followed years of investigations by federal agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in cooperation with Mexican and Colombian authorities.

Last of four parts Reporting from Calexico, Calif., and Badiraguato, Mexico T he towering iron gates opened onto a palm-lined driveway that led past the family church, a twisting water slide and two man-made lakes, one stocked with fish, the other with jet skis. With its soaring twin bell towers, each topped by a cross, the estate in the emerald hills outside Culiacan, Mexico, had an almost surreal grandeur. It reminded Carlos "Charlie" Cuevas of Disneyland, without the smiles.

John Charles Ward would take flight in the half-light before dawn, when he could race down the runway without headlights and ascend into the cloaking embrace of an overcast sky. This feature requires that JavaScript be enabled and the Flash plug-in be installed. Third of four parts J ohn Charles Ward would take flight in the half-light before dawn, when he could race down the runway without headlights and ascend into the cloaking embrace of an overcast sky. Soaring above the crowded California freeways in the single-engine aircraft, he'd relax, pour himself a whiskey and Seven and plan his hopscotch route to Pennsylvania.

Second of four parts G abriel Dieblas Roman took orders from cartel bosses in Mexico, hard men who ruled by fear, but he wouldn't approve a shipment without talking to a plucky, middle-aged woman from Compton. Guadalupe "Lupita" Villalobos ran a storefront botanica where Virgin of Guadalupe statuettes sat beside grinning Saint Death skeletons. She would threaten to turn neighbors into toads, and her clients believed she could divine the future by studying snail shells scattered on a tabletop.

Mexican soldiers have arrested the man who authorities say replaced slain drug lord Ignacio Coronel as a ranking leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, the military said Friday. Soldiers captured Martin Beltran Coronel in Zapopan, an upscale suburb of the western city of Guadalajara. Authorities described him as a nephew of Coronel, one of Mexico's most powerful drug kingpins, who was killed by troops in July during a raid in the same suburb. Gen. Edgar Luis Villegas said Joaquin Guzman, Mexico's most wanted drug fugitive and head of the alliance of Sinaloa traffickers, chose Beltran to assume command over Coronel's faction.

The house on Knightner Road is small, blue and white, with a stone front porch and a string of Christmas lights still hanging. Here, crack cocaine was sold to drive-up customers a few miles from the state Capitol in Columbia. The one on Pound Road in rural Gaston, just south of Columbia, is a brown-and-white trailer, with a gravel driveway and woods out back. Here, federal law enforcement officers surprised Frediberto Pineda, who had 10 kilos of cocaine worth $350,000 in his possession.

The bodies of at least 25 people, 15 of them with their heads cut off, were discovered Saturday in the resort city of Acapulco, authorities said. Drug cartel violence has increasingly plagued Acapulco as rival gangs fight for control of the local market, occasionally spilling into the tourist areas of the city. Even though most of Saturday's killings appeared to have steered clear of those sections, the violence damages the reputation of a once-glamorous city struggling to make a comeback amid President Felipe Calderon's drug war. The grimmest discovery came as police were investigating a burning car in a shopping center parking lot early in the morning: the decapitated bodies of 15 people.

As Californians get ready to vote on Proposition 19, which would legalize the individual possession of small amounts of marijuana for recreational use, one area of debate is what effect passage would have on the illegal drug business here and in violence-torn Mexico. I can't predict the future, but I can say a little about narco-trafficking, having covered it off and on over four continents since the early 1990s. Traditionally, the bulk of the United States' marijuana has come from Mexico; even today, despite a recent increase in the amount of pot grown in California, researchers at Rand Corp.

Death surprised Julio Carlos Lopez Soto near the beach as he stepped out of the swanky La Mansion steakhouse, where the meat is grilled on tabletops overlooking the Pacific. Death came to police officer Raymundo Leyva in the hills that rise above Acapulco Bay, where the working people of this resort city live. He was shot 11 times.

The kidnapped brother of a former state attorney general who was forced to make a video accusing the official of cartel crimes has been found slain, authorities announced Friday. Eight suspects were arrested in the kidnap-homicide of Mario Gonzalez, brother of Patricia Gonzalez, who until last month was the top prosecutor in Chihuahua, Mexico's most violence-ridden state. The suspects said the killing was ordered by a local police officer working for the Sinaloa cartel. Several of the suspects were paraded before television cameras Friday morning wearing what appeared to be the same camouflage clothes they had worn in a video in which they were seen forcing Mario Gonzalez at gunpoint to "confess.