Sinaloa

This bustling port was supposed to be just a whistle-stop for Lana and Joe Reid. The San Jose retirees were en route to the tourist hotbed of Puerto Vallarta, where they were planning to buy a home near the water. But their detour through Mazatlan turned out to be a date with destiny. They were drawn to the street life of the historic downtown. They strolled the oceanfront walkway known as the malecon. They watched the fishing fleets skipping across the bay to the seafood canneries.

The spaces for "Name of Father" are blank. But the L.A. County birth certificates list the mother, who happens to be the young wife of a highly sought-after drug lord, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Emma Coronel traveled to Southern California in mid-July and gave birth Aug. 15 to twin girls at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, according to birth records and a senior U.S. law enforcement official. Turns out Coronel, a 22-year-old former beauty queen, holds U.S. citizenship, which entitles her to travel freely to the United States.

In contrast to their upbeat public assessments, U.S. officials expressed frustration with a "risk averse" Mexican army and rivalries among security agencies that have hampered the Mexican government's war against drug cartels, according to secret U.S. diplomatic cables disclosed Thursday. The cables quoted Mexican officials expressing fear that the government was losing control of parts of its national territory and that time was "running out" to rein in drug violence. The cables gave a much starker view of the pitfalls and obstacles facing Mexican President Felipe Calderon, a departure from the public statements of unwavering support that have come out of Washington for most of the 4-year-old war, which has claimed more than 30,000 lives.

EL PASO - One of his clients, a Mexican waitress and widowed mother of three, says she played dead under a pile of bodies to survive a massacre in Ciudad Juarez led by men she recognized as federal police. Another client says Chihuahua state police hacked off his feet after he refused to pay them bribes. They came to El Paso seeking Carlos Spector, 58, a burly, hard-charging immigration attorney who has developed a strange specialty in this Texas border city. His clients, instead of crossing into the United States illegally and hiding out, are seeking asylum.

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.

MEXICO CITY - Mexican authorities responding to an anonymous tip discovered about 50 mostly mutilated bodies dumped on the side of a highway between Monterrey and the U.S. border, a region where rival gangs are battling for control over a lucrative drug-trafficking corridor. The bodies of at least 43 men and half a dozen women were found Sunday in plastic garbage bags near the town of Cadereyta Jimenez, the location of a large state-run oil refinery, officials in the state prosecutor's office told The Times.

Until he raised his pistol for the last time, Ignacio Coronel Villarreal was known for keeping his head low and footprints light. In a world populated by many larger-than-life drug bosses, the slightly built Coronel ruled with a quiet ruthlessness. He was seldom photographed and moved so carefully in the suburb of mansions where he lived in western Mexico that just one bodyguard was with him when the dragnet closed. Even his age and birthplace are a source of mystery. This much is known: By the time Mexican troops killed Coronel on Thursday outside the city of Guadalajara, he had reached the top rungs of drug trafficking, lording over a broad stretch of the Pacific coast as part of a years-long alliance with the country's most-wanted crime boss, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman.

Recently I and many other adults had the pleasure of interviewing a score of eighth-grade students at Sinaloa Middle School in Simi Valley. May 24 was the day they presented their work portfolios and themselves to members of the community. This was no simple exercise of viewing young art and essays and then patting children on the head with a word of encouragement. This program, set up by Sinaloa's educators, is designed to place the students under a critical spotlight, no different from the same scrutiny they can expect on a future college or job interview.

One of Mexico's top mafia chiefs, Emilio Quintero Payan, was shot to death by police in a suburban shopping center on the outskirts of Mexico City, U.S. and Mexican officials confirmed Monday. Quintero Payan, who allegedly ran heroin, cocaine and marijuana smuggling operations from his home state of Sinaloa, was killed Thursday, a day after the former attorney general of Sinaloa was gunned down in a Mexico City park. Officials are still investigating what seem to be links between the two cases.

A leading human rights activist who had been demanding that the government crack down on organized crime in Sinaloa state has been shot to death, state authorities said Friday. Jorge Aguirre Meza, 39, a lawyer and president of the state bar, was among four activists who campaigned against police torture and abuse in 1990, leading to the creation of the National Human Rights Commission. He is the third of the four activists to be killed.