Browsing: cartel war

CJNG’s franchise model is on display in a dark, grainy video from Mexicali, where a captive is questioned with a pistol pressed against his head. The gunman identifies his group as Los Mechas, invokes “the Four Letters,” and delivers a blunt message: “The city of Mexicali has an owner.”

U.S. prosecutors have now charged Carlos Paez Pereda, alias Carlitos Rugrats, with narcoterrorism, tying Los Rugrats to La Mayiza, Mayito Flaco’s war machine, fentanyl routes, and the fight against Los Chapitos. The case shows Washington is no longer only chasing drugs, but the armed structures behind the Sinaloa Cartel itself.

In a brutal cartel video from Mazatlán, a captive identifies himself as Jesús Armando Chacón Patiño and claims he was sent by “El Payasín” for Mayito Flaco’s side. His statements, made under captivity, point to a failed push into the port and a public warning from Chapiza.

After the Lambo shooting, the facts didn’t change—the story did. Within hours, competing narratives flooded social media, each designed to redirect blame and control perception. In Mexico’s drug war, misinformation isn’t accidental. It’s a tool, deployed fast, loud, and without regard for truth.

I took my sunglasses off before I shook his hand. Eye contact separates journalists from people who tweet news. I was sitting with some of the most wanted men in Mexico and the United States, surrounded by forty heavily armed sicarios. One wrong expression and I wouldn’t have walked away. This wasn’t myth or rumor. This was real life.