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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - The U.S. State Department is advising travelers to use caution this month if they plan on traveling to Mexico for spring break. The agency has issued a Level 2 travel advisory for the country following a wave of cartel violence in recent weeks. What we know: Level 2 means travelers should "exercise increased caution." While popular spring break destinations like Cancun are under this Level 2 status, that is not the case for the entire country. The backstory: About a week ago, the world watched as violence broke out in parts of Mexico. Fire engulfed cars, blocking...

WASHINGTON -- The United States and Ecuador conducted joint military operations against "designated terrorist organizations in Ecuador," U.S. Southern Command announced on Tuesday. This marks the first time that the U.S. military has engaged in a land operation against South American drug cartels. Until now, the U.S. military had only carried out airstrikes targeting smuggling boats in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

An alleged Sinaloa Cartel leader has been charged with narcoterrorism and drug trafficking, and a reward of up to $5 million each is being offered for information leading to his capture, as well as the arrest of his brother, federal prosecutors in San Diego said Thursday. Narcoterrorism is a new charge and term that stems from the Trump administration's designation of some cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel. Mexico has also worked with this administration to send some people to the U.S. for prosecution. Rene Arzate-Garcia, also known as "La Rana," is described by prosecutors in court...

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — With spring break on the horizon, Mexico’s resort cities have long been a top destination for college students and vacationers looking to get away for the holiday. However, on the heels of last week’s cartel violence, some travelers are canceling or considering a different destination. “Cancellations for those areas, definitely,” Renee Pilley, Senior Travel Advisor with AAA in Amherst, said in response to some of Mexico’s resort cities. “People are just … they don’t want to take a chance.” Violence broke out in reaction to the Mexican government’s operation that killed one of their most notorious...

A day of extreme violence in Mexico has left American tourists, including several Arizonans, sheltering in place as the U.S. Department of State issued urgent new travel restrictions following a major military operation. **SNIP** Dig deeper: In Puerto Vallarta, tourists reported a sudden shift in the city's atmosphere. Melissa Selvey, an Arizonan sheltering at her resort, shared photos of fires visible from her balcony and described an "eerie" feeling among the staff. "The vibes changed really fast," she said. "Yesterday was a beautiful, wonderful Puerto Vallarta vacation day, and then today just feels very eerie, and very like vacant looks...

TAPALPA, Mexico (AP) — A day after the Mexican army killed the country’s most powerful drug lord, the picturesque town where it happened was a study in contrasts. Children whose classes had been suspended by the outbreak of violence played in cobblestone streets and tourist shops were open on Tapalpa’s main plaza Monday. But gunshots also rang out, and just outside the town a dead man lay on the road next to a Jeep sprayed with bullets. Meanwhile, heavily armed Mexican security forces kept up their battle with cartel gunmen following the killing that sparked a surge in violence and...

Mexico has quietly shipped nearly 100 suspected cartel drug traffickers to the US to stand trial charges after President Trump branded the groups foreign terrorist organizations last year — and pressured the Mexican government to cooperate. The suspects include the brother of Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes — the brutal Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG) leader who was killed by the Mexican army on Sunday. The Justice Department said many of the 92 defendants released to the Americans had US extradition requests that were not honored during the Biden administration.

(FOX 5/KUSI) — The Mexican state of Baja California is far from the military operation that killed a powerful Mexican cartel boss, but the cartel’s outbreak of violence across the country in retribution reached the border region and its effects continued into Monday. Mexican authorities killed Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in a targeted operation in Tapalpa, Jalisco, in the central part of the country, early Sunday morning. Within hours, the cartel’s operatives in more than a dozen states set fire to vehicles and buildings, including several branches of a government bank,...

Californians have been trapped in Mexico as cartel violence engulfed a popular tourist city and spilled towards the US border. Americans in Puerto Vallarta were urged to stay indoors as narco gangs went on a bloody rampage after leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes was killed in a military raid on Sunday. Carnage spread up the west coast of the country through Sunday, with reports of attacks getting closer to the States in Baja California while gunfire erupted at Guadalajara International Airport. Cars and businesses were also set on fire further across the country...

The Mexican army killed the boss of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho. The cartel is not happy about the fact, and major parts of the country have erupted in violence, requiring citizens and tourists to shelter in place as terrorists blow up cars, set fires, destroy businesses, and generally act like activists in Minnesota when they are unhappy about something. Maybe even worse. Multiple sources report dozens of coordinated narcobloqueos paralyzing key areas in Jalisco (including Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta), Tamaulipas, Nayarit, and Michoacán today.Cartel gunmen are torching trucks and cars to...

A major Mexican resort town was under siege on Sunday and an airport was reportedly attacked as the leader of the brutal Jalisco New Generation Cartel was killed by the army on Sunday. Tourists in Puerto Vallarta were warned to stay indoors as narco gangs lashed out following the death of drug kingpin Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the powerful boss of the violent crime outfit. The US State Department urged Americans to shelter in place, and some American tourists have reported being trapped in the region.

Violent clashes erupted in parts of western Mexico on Sunday amid a military operation that led to the death of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader, triggering widespread security concerns throughout the region. Mexican security forces killed Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, also known as "El Mencho," during an operation in the western state of Jalisco, Mexico's Ministry of Defense said in a statement on X. It said he was wounded during the raid in the town of Tapalpa and died while being flown to Mexico City. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who also confirmed the cartel leader's death,...

Gov. Tim Walz is akin to the leader of a “drug cartel,” according to a Minnesota state lawmaker who filed articles of impeachment against the embattled Democrat — and warns other pols in the scandal state could be next. Republican state Rep. Mike Wiener drafted the paperwork to boot lefty Walz in November and filed the docs on Jan. 12, alleging the former vice presidential candidate failed in his fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers as a $9 billion Somali social services scandal unfolded under his nose. “This is almost like a drug cartel. You’ve got various levels that are all taking...

Six people were killed in a series of related shooting in eastern Mississippi, according to authorities. Clay County Sheriff Eddie Scott on Friday said a suspect, later identified as 24-year-old Daricka Moore, was taken into custody. Online records show Moore was charged with first-degree murder. WTVA reported that a 7-year-old girl was among the victims. "Unfortunately tonight we have dealt with tragedy in our community. Multiple innocent lives lost due to violence. We do have the individual in custody and no longer poses a threat to our community," Scott wrote in a post he shared on Facebook. "I ask that...

President Donald Trump announced in an interview aired Jan. 8 that the United States will begin launching strikes on the cartels in Mexico. “We knocked out 97 percent of the drugs coming in by water, and we are going to start now hitting land with regard with the cartels,” Trump told Fox News. “The cartels are running Mexico,” Trump said. “It’s very sad to watch and see what’s happened to that country.” The announcement comes just five days after Trump ordered an operation to remove Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to the United States to face criminal charges, including narco-terrorism. This...

A former longtime Drug Enforcement Administration agent who rose to help oversee the agency’s financial operations has been charged with agreeing to launder millions of dollars in narcotics proceeds for a Mexican drug cartel, according to an indictment unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in the Manhattan borough of New York City. The former agent, Paul Campo, worked for the DEA for about 25 years, the indictment said, first as a special agent in New York and eventually rising to become a high-level official — the deputy chief of the Office of Financial Operations. He retired in January 2016 and...

Trump is taking down the Maduro regime in Venezuela because a small group of patriots stopped the 2024 election fraud. And they figured out how the 2020 election was rigged by voting machines owned by the Maduro regime.Venezuela = America's rigged elections.

Qatar will leave the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as of next month, its energy minister told media today, adding that the decision was part of a long-term strategy for growing its international presence on energy markets with a focus on gas. Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, but it has Australia breathing down its neck as well as emerging competition from the United States and other, smaller, producers. “Qatar has decided to withdraw its membership from OPEC effective January 2019 and this decision was communicated to OPEC this morning,” Saad al-Kaabi said, as quoted by...

United States Southern Command on Monday announced that Joint Task Force Southern Spear took out three narcotrafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific. A total of eight “narco-terrorists” were killed in the strikes. “Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking,” US SOUTHCOM said. Video from the strikes shows massive explosions on each boat, turning them into burning piles of rubble. WATCH: VIDEOS AT LINK.................... US Strikes More Venezuelan Drug Boats US Southern Command said in a statement on X, On Dec. 15, at the direction of @SecWar Pete...

Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley told lawmakers today that there was no “kill them all” order on an alleged drug boat in September. According to the Associated Press, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said Bradley “was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all.” Cotton also said the video of the strike showed the two survivors “trying to flip their boat back over and continue their mission.” The Democrats, on the other hand, tried to portray the alleged drug runners as “shipwrecked sailors.” From Fox News: Still, [Rep. Jim] Himes said the...