A former high-ranking member of the Los Zetas cartel entered a guilty plea last week to a conspiracy to import tons of cocaine into the United States. 43-year-old Jose Maria Guizar-Valencia, of Tulare, California, is considered one of the last number
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The story of a successful narco kingpin always has the same arc. There is the rise and the inevitable fall. The fall comes in the form of death or prison. No amount of power, money, bloodshed or a combination of all three can stop that. Not even when
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A Colombian man has been sentenced in federal court in Boston this week for his role in a drug trafficking conspiracy connected to organized crime in the Republic of Colombia. 41-year-old Mario Zapata Velez, of Medellín, was sentenced to five years i
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Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was released from prison this week. She had been locked up since her 2021 arrest on drug and money laundering charges.
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51-year-old Dairo “Otoniel” Antonio Úsuga David, Colombia’s most powerful drug lord, was sentenced on Tuesday to 45 years in prison for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise as a leader of the multibillion-dollar paramilitary and narcotics tra
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Ernesto Diaz-Velazquez, a 40-year-old Texan, was sentenced to 7 years in prison for conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute approximately 19 kilograms of meth this week, the DEA announced in a press statement. He had pleaded guilty Decemb
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The world of narcos is one where truth is stranger than fiction. Just look at fugitive cartel boss Sebastián Marset. While on the run from serious drug and murder charges, he fled to Bolivia. Last week, he barely managed to escape arrest. Rather than
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Branding is important. Even when you have a product as successful – and addictive - as cocaine. Though the stuff practically sells itself to everyone - from junkies and sports fans to Wall Street Gordon Gecko wannabes and vegan yoga instructors - it
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Drug traffickers have to be creative. Always one step ahead of the cops. They have to think outside the box in order to get their boxes filled with narcotics across borders. Authorities in Colombia discovered cocaine inside blood transfusion bags. Th
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A drug trafficker operating in Portland, Oregon, was sentenced on Wednesday for his role in the 2019 kidnapping and murder of a Washington State man. 48-year-old Marcos Alonso Castillo-Bernal received a prison sentence of 26 years.
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A man from Lowell, Massachusetts, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Boston for conspiring to distribute cocaine. 61-year-old Miguel Colindres got a sentence of over 4 years in prison.
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The U.S. Justice Department has come at the Sinaloa Cartel hard. In “a clear message to the Chapitos”, authorities charged the sons of notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman with trafficking fentanyl and other narcotics, money laundering, and
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Americans are dying younger and younger. One of the reasons is their addiction to opioids and other narcotics. Though the War on Drugs seems a failure, authorities continue as before. Only this time they focus on the money. The root of all evil. A tw
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The 39-year-old brother of a former leader in the Gulf Cartel was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Monday. Lee Roy Villarreal was found guilty in July of 2019 following an eight-day trial of conspiracy to distribute more than five kilograms of coca
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Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has obtained a civil recovery order for gold worth an estimated £4 million that was being laundered by South American drug cartels, the NCA announced Tuesday. Financial investigators took up the case after the sh
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If you are an inmate and want to flaunt your influence behind bars, what do you do? Well, one Mexican crime boss got himself a $2,000-dollar cat and tattooed it with a pirate flag and bald eagle, because… Well, Narcos Mexico, I guess.
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The nephew of Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero was extradited from Mexico to the United States Wednesday on charges of participating in a large-scale narcotics distribution conspiracy and using one or more firearms in connection with narcotic o
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One of the leaders of a violent international drug trafficking organization that distributed heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine in the Puget Sound region was sentenced Tuesday over 12 years in prison. 37-year-old Jose Elias Barbosa, of Kent, Washi
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Two brothers with ties to Cartel de Jalisco Nuevo Generación, one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels, have been sentenced last week to a combined 70 years in federal prison for methamphetamine and money laundering offenses.
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A Mexican man involved in a Mexico‑based drug trafficking organization that was distributing significant amounts of methamphetamine in the Waterloo, Iowa, area was convicted by a jury on Thursday after a three‑day trial in federal court in Cedar Rapi
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