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cartel watch

‘The Winners Are the Cartels’: Mexico Slaps Cuffs on the DEA

ESCALATION

“The DEA miscalculated just how militarized this country has become ... maybe the CIA should have warned them.”

Jeremy Kryt | Published Dec 16, 2020

Colombia Considers Ultimate Hit on Cartels: Legalize Cocaine

BLOW BUSINESS

A ground-breaking and controversial new Senate bill would allow the government to regulate and process the drug. But what would be the long-range consequences of such a move?

Jeremy Kryt | Published Dec 07, 2020

Mexican Army’s ‘Secret Brotherhood’ Forced General’s Release

CRIMINAL INJUSTICE

High-ranking military officers blackmailed the civilian government into pushing U.S. prosecutors to drop drug trafficking charges against a former defense secretary.

Jeremy Kryt | Published Nov 26, 2020

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DEA Investigators Fuming Over Mexican General’s Dropped Case

SAVED BY THE BARR

Some senior law enforcement officials who helped build the case against Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda were reportedly not consulted ahead of the dropped drug-trafficking charges.

David Shortell | Published Nov 18, 2020

COVID Death Squads Blamed for Record Colombian Massacres

CARTEL WATCH

A string of massacres has killed 48 people so far this month. Some claim “coronavirus death squads” are targeting those who violate lockdown, others blame a series of turf wars.

Jeremy Kryt | Published Aug 31, 2020

How We Cover Dictators, Dissidents, and Dangerous Places

THE BACKSTORY

International news and U.S. news are perilously intertwined in ways they never have been before, in a constant rush of events that The Daily Beast covers around the clock.

AD BY Back the Beast | Published Aug 21, 2020

Why Trump’s MS-13 Strategy Will Fail

KINGPIN COLLAPSE

The president is using a crackdown on MS-13 to push political and racist agendas, and not to address what drives gang recruitment in the first place, experts say.

Jeremy Kryt | Published Jul 27, 2020

If New Zealand Is Middle Earth, Its Ganglands Are Mordor

KIWI CARTELS

Violent gangs, mostly from Australia, are wreaking havoc in what seemed like a paradise. And now the Latin American cartels are moving in.

Tom Mutch | Published Jul 11, 2020

Cartels Target Top Cop as Killings Soar in Mexico

CARTEL WATCH

The bold assassination attempt against a high-ranking police officer in the heart of Mexico City highlights a rising tide of cartel violence under the pandemic.

Jeremy Kryt | Published Jul 02, 2020

Mexican Narcos Are More Brazen by the Day

CARTEL WATCH

One soldier was killed and three more wounded, including a top regional commander, after a cocaine-filled airplane touched down near a Caribbean resort in Mexico.

Jeremy Kryt | Published Jan 29, 2020

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