La Familia

13 Stories

Mexico: Calderon Drug War Spawned 60 New Cartels

New AG says just 10 big ones existed when Calderon took office

(Newser) - The bloody war President Felipe Calderon launched in 2006 to squash Mexico's big drug cartels instead created scores of smaller ones, the country's new attorney general says. "I would calculate there are between 60 and 80 (new cartels), both medium-sized and small," Jesus Murillo told Mexican...

Mexican Town Seizes 16 Cops
 Mexican Town 
 Seizes 16 Cops 
Apr 20, 2012 4:22 AM CDT

Mexican Town Seizes 16 Cops

Indigenous people demand probe of killings by illegal loggers

(Newser) - The people of an indigenous town in western Mexico kidnapped 16 police officers in a desperate attempt to get some attention from the state government, AP reports. Illegal loggers linked to drug cartels have been destroying the forests the people of Cheran depend on. The town of 17,000 people...

12 Cops Probing 10 Beheadings Killed in Mexico

Police ambushed as they searched for victims' bodies

(Newser) - A dozen police officers investigating the beheadings of 10 people were killed in an ambush in southern Mexico. Another 11 officers were injured. The officers were traveling in six patrol cars searching for the bodies of seven men and three women whose heads were found dumped outside a slaughterhouse in...

15 Bodies Dumped at Mexico Gas Station

Cartels at war again in Michoacan

(Newser) - The drug war appears to be heating up again in Mexican President Felipe Calderon's home state. Some 15 semi-naked bodies were found in a pile outside a gas station in Zitacuaro, Michoacan state, the BBC reports. All of the victims were male and three were minors. Police say threatening...

Mexico Captures Top Cartel Leader—'the Monkey'

Alleged head of La Familia group is arrested

(Newser) - Mexico says it struck a "large blow" against drug cartels today by capturing the leader of the notorious La Familia gang. Authorities arrested Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargaz (aka El Chango, or the Monkey) at a highway checkpoint without incident. La Familia announced its emergence as a main player...

Mexico Cartel Battle Kills 29
 Mexico Cartel Battle Kills 29 
May 27, 2011 1:40 AM CDT

Mexico Cartel Battle Kills 29

Fighting forces thousands to flee homes

(Newser) - Yet another bloody battle in Mexico's drug war has left at least 29 bodies in fake military uniforms lying dead among more than a dozen bullet-riddled vehicles in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit. Investigators believe the highway battle between members of the Zetas and Sinaloa cartels began when...

Mexican Cartel Claims to Have Retired

La Familia dissolved, banners say

(Newser) - Banners have appeared in the heartland of Mexico's La Familia drug cartel claiming that the criminal organization has been dissolved but authorities are understandably skeptical. The cartel, one of Mexico's most brutal, declared a month-long truce earlier this month and authorities believe that it is weakened and in disarray but...

Top Mexican Drug Cartel Calls Truce ... for One Month

La Familia claims break will prove it's not as bad as reports indicate

(Newser) - When it comes to Mexican drug cartels, members of La Familia are apparently the good guys. A one-month truce in the western state of Michoacan was announced yesterday in a letter supposedly signed by the gang. In the message, circulated through email and distributed door-to-door in some cities, the cartel...

Kidnapped Tourists Found in Mexican Mass Grave

YouTube video leads police to 18 bodies

(Newser) - Investigators believe 18 bodies found in a mass grave near Acapulco are members of a group of Mexican tourists kidnapped a month ago . Police were led to the mass grave by a video posted on YouTube, in which two men answering questions from an unseen interrogator say they killed the...

Mexico Busts Cop Boss Turned Cartel Hitman Chief

'El Tyson' masterminded assassination plots

(Newser) - Mexico has arrested a former police commander who changed sides to rise through the ranks of the La Familia drug cartel. Miguel Ortiz Miranda—alias "El Tyson"—is accused of organizing teams of hitmen for the cartel. He has been linked to the attempted assassination of a security...

29 Die in Mexican Prison Massacre

10 police killed in convoy ambush

(Newser) - At least 29 inmates were killed yesterday as drug cartels clashed at a prison in Mexico's Sinaloa state. Three policeman guarding the prison were injured, and 20 inmates were shot to death when one gang forced its way into another cell block and opened fire on its rivals, AP reports....

Mexican Drug Cartels Join Forces to Wipe Out Rival

War against Zetas fueling surge in violence along Rio Grande

(Newser) - Three of Mexico's warring drug cartels have agreed to stop shooting each other for as long as it takes to wipe out a fourth, up-and-coming cartel, the BBC reports. Anti-narcotics authorities say that the Sinaloa, La Familia, and Gulf cartels are seeking to exterminate the Zetas, a breakaway group of...

300 Arrested in Drug Raids Across US

Feds crack down on violent Mexican cartel specializing in meth

(Newser) - In the largest single strike at Mexican drug operations in the US, federal officials today announced the arrests of more than 300 people in raids across the country aimed at the newest and most violent cartel. La Familia has earned a reputation for dominating the methamphetamine trade and for using...

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