Organized Crime

Jesús Gutiérrez Guzmán, cousin of Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, was arrested in Madrid in 2012 following an elaborate FBI operation posing as Italian mafiosi. The mission, called Dark Waters, spanned three years and involved negotiations to expand the Sinaloa Cartel's cocaine trafficking to Europe. Gutiérrez, acting as the cartel's representative, fell into the trap that ended with the seizure of 346 kilos of drugs.

31 января 2026 Сообщено ИИ

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Mexican businessman Carlos Federico Valenzuela Cadena on January 16 in Houston, Texas. The 63-year-old faces charges in Mexico for fraud, extortion, and organized crime tied to real estate scams in Nayarit. He will be extradited to face Mexican justice.

In 2026, several Sinaloa Cartel leaders, including Ovidio and Joaquín Guzmán López as well as Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, will have key hearings in US courts to determine their sentences for drug trafficking and organized crime. These proceedings follow guilty pleas reached in 2025, amid an internal cartel war. Dates include January for Ovidio, June for Joaquín, and April for El Mayo.

26 декабря 2025 Сообщено ИИ

In late December 2025, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, leader of Los Chapitos, faced several blows: the murder of close collaborators and arrests of family members. These events include the killing of Oscar Medina 'El Panu' in Mexico City and the capture of his father-in-law and brother-in-law in Jalisco.

A yakuza executive pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in the first trial hearing for the 2013 fatal shooting of the Gyoza no Ohsho restaurant chain president in Kyoto. Yukio Tanaka, 59, stated, "I'm definitely not the culprit," challenging the prosecution's evidence as circumstantial. The case will be heard by professional judges only, with a ruling scheduled for October 16, 2026.

26 ноября 2025 Сообщено ИИ

France's Office antistupéfiants (Ofast) has analyzed the scale of narcotrafficking in a confidential report. The document states that 70 tonnes of cocaine were seized in the first ten months of 2025, a 30% increase from 2024. Additionally, 96 tonnes of cannabis were intercepted over the same period.