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Gunfire and roadblocks were reported Wednesday evening in Matamoros as armed gunmen with the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas organization clashed with the Mexican military in a three-way confrontation, sources stated. One of the international bridges to Brownsville was closed. Tractor-trailers were used to block off various avenues in Matamoros, including Lauro Villar, Avenida Solidaridad, Avenida del Nino and other main thoroughfares, in an effort to keep military vehicles from getting through, according to a Mexican law enforcement official who asked not to be named for security reasons. A source with the Mexican military who asked not to be named...

The Mexican Army is hunting a 12-year-old assassin who is allegedly employed by a drug cartel to torture and murder its enemies, Sky News reported today. Known simply as El Ponchis — which means "The Cloak" — the young boy has been accused of helping wage a turf war in the central Morelos state. Reports said he was paid $3,000 per murder and that he tortured his victims before killing them. He often cuts his victim's throat, leaving the head attached by just a thread.

THE Mexican Army is hunting a 12-year-old assassin who is allegedly employed by a drug cartel to torture and murder its enemies. Known simply as El Ponchis - which means "The Cloak" - the young boy has been accused of helping wage a turf war in the central Morelos state. Reports said he was paid $US3000 per murder and that he tortured his victims before killing them. He often cuts his victim's throat, leaving the head attached by just a thread. Videos of El Ponchis attacking one enemy with a stick and cutting the throat of another have appeared online,...

ZACATECAS, MEXICO (BNO NEWS) -- Three human heads were found in front of a government building on Friday in the northern Mexican state of Zacatecas, officials said. At about 6:00 a.m. local time, a group of young students were walking towards their school when they discovered the heads of three individuals in the garden in front of the government building of Chalchihuites town, about 215 kilometers from the state capital city of Zacatecas. The headless bodies were found approximately one kilometer away from the heads, in a highway. Two messages were found next to the bodies indicating that the crime...

BROWNSVILLE — A global intelligence company Wednesday said the death of U.S. citizen David Michael Hartley on Falcon Lake was a case of mistaken identity in a turf war between rival drug cartels. Hartley, who was shot during a Sept. 30 sightseeing trip to the Mexican side of the binational reservoir, was shot by Zeta cartel enforcers because he was mistaken for a spy of the rival Gulf Cartel, according to the report by STRATFOR, and Austin-based think tank specializing in intelligence and international issues. The report goes on to say Hartley's body likely was destroyed as Los Zetas went...

Mexican drug cartels are like a malignant cancer that keeps on spreading. Mexico has spent billions of dollars on its drug war to combat the power and influence of the cartels, but when you look at the statistics it seems as if little progress has been made. Considering the dramatic impact cartels have on the United Sates, America should consider if securing our border is as important to our national security as is the war we are fighting in Afghanistan. Mexico’s war on drugs has been ongoing since 2006, but the problem keeps getting bigger each year. So does the...

An eyewitness has come forward in the case of the American who was allegedly attacked by Mexican pirates to claim he saw the man's panicked wife as she fled to the American side of the lake. As a safety precaution, the witness spoke in shadow and with voice alteration to avoid identification because he said he feared for his life. "It was hard, just remembering everything about us going in to go take pictures and enjoying the sunny day and enjoying the nice weather," Tiffany Hartley, wife of missing David Hartley, told "Good Morning America" today, just hours after returning...

SAN FERNANDO, Mexico – Two cars exploded early Friday in a northern state where officials are investigating the killing of 72 Central and South American migrants, while a prosecutor investigating the massacre has disappeared. The prosecutor, Roberto Jaime Suarez, disappeared Wednesday in the town of San Fernando, where the bodies of the migrants were found, the Tamaulipas state attorney general's office said in a statement. A transit police officer in the town is also missing. President Felipe Calderon, speaking during a forum on security, said Suarez, a Tamaulipas state prosecutor, was involved in the initial investigation of the massacre, which...

A Mexican news organization reported a massive breakout from the Matamoros Prison. According to Proceso, the breakout took place Wednesday night when an armed commando arrived at the prison and freed 40 federal inmates. Mexican law enforcement officials would not comment on the purported breakout, and as of Saturday morning there had been no official statement about such an occurrence. A source with firsthand knowledge of criminal activity in Mexico confirmed the escape and said jail breakouts have become a common technique for drug cartels to fill their ranks in the ongoing war between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas...

Jose Ezequiel Galicia Gonzalez, an alleged member of the Zetas criminal organization, was in federal court Wednesday for a competency hearing after he tried to kill himself with plastic cutlery. According to testimony given before U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio, Galicia used either a plastic knife or a plastic spoon to cut his wrists and then slit his throat. According to defense attorney Reynaldo Cantu, Galicia almost succeeded and ended up in intensive care. Cantu stated that Galicia might suffer from a mental disease or defect and requested a psychiatric evaluation. Galicia will be evaluated by a court-appointed psychiatrist on...

On July 24, Kimberly Dvorak, of the Examiner, and Don Amato, of the blog Digger’s Realm, broke the story about two Texas ranches outside of Laredo, Texas, being seized by members of Los Zetas drug cartel. Today, Ms. Dvorak posted a copy of the police blotter which provides a good deal of the information necessary to confirm her initial story’s claims:

A man alleged to have been a member of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel and later of the Zetas criminal organization appeared in U.S. federal court Friday and – when he saw his mother, wife and sister in the room – broke down sobbing, his big frame shaking visibly. Wearing khaki pants, a wrinkled blue shirt and shackles on his wrists, Luis Alberto Blanco Flores, known as “El Pelochas,” appeared at a preliminary hearing as a follow-up to his arrest on July 23 for illegal entry to the United States. At the hearing, an agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement testified...

Four alleged members of the drug trafficking organization Los Zetas are dead following a shootout with authorities near San Fernando. The Mexican Navy (SEMAR) reported that Marines out on patrol came under fire around 6 p.m. Thursday. The shootout reportedly four alleged members of the Zetas dead. SEMAR officials reported seizing: • One rocket launcher • Nine assault rifles • Two handguns • Three fragmentation grenades • 2,600 ammunition cartridges • 10 bulletproof vests • 500 grams of cocaine • 223,000 pesos in cash • Three vehicles Names of the those killed in the battle were not released but the...

Local law enforcement was bombarded with calls from across the country Saturday asking about a report that the Zetas had taken over two ranches off Mines Road. But officials with the Laredo Police Department, Webb County Sheriff’s Department and Border Patrol said they knew nothing about such an incident, while Erik Vasys, an FBI spokesman in San Antonio, said the agency does not comment on rumors.

... The ranches are said to be "near Mines Rd. and Minerales Rd. about 10 miles NW of I-35". Whether it is lone members or squads is not certain. Anonymous sources in law enforcement in the Laredo area tonight have passed on word that US law enforcement agencies are in the area and are weighing their options regarding the ranches. The media has been silent on this incident and some law enforcement in the area says that they are furious that the media is not reporting the whole story of the continued violence along the border. Their frustrations are understandable...

One of the most violent criminal organizations in Mexico has set up camp in Los Angeles. From here controls the distribution of the drug to other parts of the country and, as an informant, who began to recruit out of California prisons to become assassins. This is the formidable organization of the Zetas, a group of Mexican army deserters in the late 90's became the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel and then consolidated as a group of assassins that has fought wars against different mafia organizations in Mexico and has partnered with some of them. Los Zetas began his...

Where was our news media? Where was our president and congress? Why does the official move from Washington go against American private citizens and their guns, and not an all out war against the drug cartels using fully automatic military weapons, hand grenades, launchers and machine-guns? Why is the president pushing for an international gun law that will bring registration and finally gun control to we American citizens? Who is for free and lawful American citizens? Where are our statesmen? Where are our patriots and where are champions for the Constitution and freedom and safety of American citizens? This is...

MEXICO CITY -- Authorities in northern Mexico say assailants sprayed a town hall with gunfire, killing at least three police officers. The Nuevo Leon state attorney general's office says police found 200 shell casings from assault and semiautomatic rifles outside the Los Herreras municipal office, which also houses the town's police force. Such weapons are often used by drug cartel hitmen. Prosecutors said Tuesday a vehicle found at the scene had "Z-40" and "Z" painted on its windows - apparent references to the Zetas drug gang. Authorities blame fighting between the Gulf cartel and the Zetas for a recent surge...

17 inmates were found shot to death in the aftermath of a prison riot in Mazatlan. When the riot was brought under control, firearms including an assault rifle were found. Unconfirmed reports put all the dead as members of the Zetas drug gang. The Sinaloa drug cartel is very powerful in this area. Mexico has been torn by the ongoing drug wars in which criminal cartels are fighting each other for the lucrative drug trade moving marijuana and cocaine north into the US.

Mexican authorities are blaming a captured Zetas drug cartel leader as being the mastermind behind an attack on an American Consulate in Monterrey. The Mexican Army (SEDENA) captured Hector Raul Luna-Luna during an operation in Monterrey on Wednesday. Authorities reported that Luna-Luna, who also goes by the nickname “El Tory”, is the head of the operations for the Zetas in the northern Mexican city. Luna-Luna’s captured prompted a series of “narcoblockades” and chaos in Monterrey on Wednesday evening. The Mexican Army reports that Luna-Luna is responsible for numerous attacks against military personnel and even an attack on the American Consulate...