Wild and unsubstantiated allegations made in a hearing that dozens of elected officials, including Arizona lawmakers, are secretly on the payroll of a Mexican drug cartel have roiled the state legislature, with Republican lawmakers denouncing the allegations as “disgraceful”. Read more»

Although drug dealers operate on many social media platforms, experts are most worried about Snapchat due to the app’s anonymity, and an Arizona effort is underway to help inform parents of the dangers of fentanyl and cartels’ use of social media to reach vulnerable youth. Read more»

Laredo is the epicenter of a multibillion-dollar migrant smuggling industry, where coyotes bring people they have led across the Rio Grande to stash houses before their associates load groups of them onto trailers tucked away in the city’s warehouse district. Read more»

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is asking Gov. Doug Ducey to declare an “invasion” at the state’s southern border to invoke war powers and send the state’s National Guard troops to fight cartels and human smugglers. Read more»

Selene Marie Camacho was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday after she pleaded guilty in July 2021 telling the court she worked as a courier for a drug smuggling organization, retrieving drugs smuggled into the U.S. on foot. Read more»

A GOP plan to impose stiff prison sentences against those who make and sell fentanyl is more likely to sweep up drug addicts than the dealers it ostensibly seeks to punish, critics said Thursday. Read more»

As avocados from Mexico have grown increasingly popular on U.S. dinner tables in recent years, so has insecurity in the region in which they are cultivated, leading criminal organizations in Mexico to extortion of legal enterprises as an easy way to make money. Read more»

It’s impossible to overstate just how lawless and dangerous Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich showed himself to be when he issued a flagrantly political legal opinion that all but dares Gov. Doug Ducey to declare a literal war and send troops to the border. Read more»

Arizona AG Brnovich says Gov. Ducey would be on solid constitutional ground if he invoked war powers and sent the Arizona National Guard to the U.S-Mexico border to stop what he says is an "invasion" of drug cartels and criminal gangs. Read more»

Arizona accounts for more than 9% of drugs that cross the land border into the U.S. from Mexico each year, and technology does some of the dirty work of stemming the flow as Mexican cartels work to stay steps ahead of them. Read more»

In an effort to reduce gun smuggling, the Mexican government is suing a group of gun manufacturers — including Glock, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing and Colt’s Manufacturing — in the United States, and the first hearing was held last week in Boston. Read more»

Celeste Gonzalez de Bustamante and Jeannine Relly, journalism professors based at the University of Arizona, spent the last decade collecting dozens of oral histories from journalists working along the U.S.-Mexico border, and in Mexican states hit hard by drug violence. Read more»

Federal officials in Tucson unsealed two indictments against Aureliano Guzmán-Loera — the brother of the notorious drug kingpin known as El Chapo — charging him and other high-ranking members of the Sinaloa Cartel with international drug trafficking. Read more»

Arizona is among the worst states for smuggling of illegal goods, along with California, Texas, Florida and eight others being targeted by a new nationwide initiative from Phillip Morris – United to Safeguard America From Illegal Trade. Read more»

Sponsors of Expoweed 2021 in Mexico City - which aims to “break stigmas” of marijuana use and “create new paradigms as a society” - hails the cannabis industry’s ability to tackle society’s issues, but understates the history of drug violence as Mexico moves towards legalization. Read more»