The streets of Mexican cities are drenched in blood because of the horrific cartel violence.

 

Taking the Offensive Against Cartels

Michael Swartz 2-25-26 patriotpost.us

The drug kingpin known as “El Mencho” was killed by Mexican authorities, opening a new chapter in the war on cartels.

Two years ago, back in the bad old days of President Autopen, I introduced a piece on Mexican cartels by predicting, “In the time it takes you to read this article, it’s most likely that some American somewhere will have died from an overdose of fentanyl.” With President Donald Trump taking office and making it a priority to fight the fentanyl threat, I would now have to write an article that’s about 25% longer to maintain that statement.

But that success is only the beginning. While people were aware that President Trump placed a price on the head of former Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, not as many knew about a bounty placed on Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho,” the former head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel who assumed room temperature en route to treatment at a Mexico City hospital after being mortally wounded in a daring raid on a mountain compound by Mexican special forces. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, “U.S. and Mexican law enforcement saw capturing Oseguera as a high-risk operation because of his military might and the risks of widespread violence. With this strike, Mexico had provided a ‘scalp to the U.S., putting off the threat of unilateral U.S. military action against the cartels,’ said Mike Burgoyne, a former U.S. military attaché in Mexico City.”

Burgoyne’s assessment signals a further change in thinking by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has turned from the initial perception upon her election of being controlled by the cartels to a more cooperative stance, at least according to The New York Times. “[El Mencho’s] death is likely to improve the Mexican government’s relations with Washington,” the Times reported. “Mr. Trump has been pressuring Mexico to combat the cartels more forcefully and threatening military strikes against the groups if he is not satisfied with the results. Ms. Sheinbaum has firmly and repeatedly rejected that proposal, saying any U.S. strikes would violate Mexico’s sovereignty. At the same time, her government has expanded its cooperation with American security agencies, including on intelligence.”

In fact, our “intelligence support” was credited as part of the success of the operation, which was exclusively carried out by the Mexican military.

That success, however, came with a cost, as angry cartel members ran rampant in several Mexican states, blocking roads, burning buildings, and killing dozens. The American embassy urged U.S. citizens in several locations to shelter in place until further notice. Meanwhile, schools were closed in several areas of Mexico, while concerts and soccer matches were canceled. “The Mexican government, assisted by our government, has won a great victory against the New Generation Cartel of Jalisco,” said National Review’s Jim Geraghty. “But it has come at a significant cost, costs borne mostly by the people of Mexico, hiding in their homes and wondering when the streets will be safe again.”

Then again, the streets of Mexico haven’t been all that safe for years since narco-terrorism took over in the 1990s, with the cartels becoming powerful enough to enlist the use of drones rigged with explosives against Border Patrol agents, as our Emmy Griffin wrote last year. So it was more of a precaution for Americans to hunker down as cartels used the common psychological ploy of burning cars and halting traffic to remind people who’s in control. “They are burning buses, they’re shutting down roads, not only in Jalisco, but Michoacan, Colima, Tamaulipas, Guanajuato, and then also Aguas Calientes,” said Mike Vigil, former DEA Chief of International Operations, to CBS News. “And what they’re trying to do is show that they are still a force to be reckoned with, that this was not a lethal blow to them.”

The bigger fear, however, is a war between factions of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel if there wasn’t a succession plan in place. In the meantime, former DEA acting administrator Derek Maltz acknowledged that the operation’s success was a long time coming: “We’ve been sharing intelligence against Mencho for a long time. And we share intelligence daily with our counterparts in the embassy in Mexico.”

There was still a sense of triumph from Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. “The good guys are stronger than the bad guys,” he wrote on X, but later cautioned, “I’m watching the scenes of violence from Mexico with great sadness and concern. It’s not surprising that the bad guys are responding with terror. But we must never lose our nerve.”

The lives of thousands who could be fentanyl victims depend on us staying in the fight.

 

Nation's commit suicide by demographic means - illegal immigration will be our destruction - IF we do nothing.

 

Peter Schweizer’s Invisible Coup Warns of the Migrant Invasion

In his typical lucid, accessible style, Schweizer nevertheless provides a deep dive into how mass immigration is being used to undermine America.

John Dale Dunn | February 25, 2026 www.americanthinker.com

Peter Schweizer is a renowned and accomplished American investigative journalist who has written 19 books. His latest book, The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon, could be his best and most important to date, as he discusses the existential risk to America posed by multiple, multifarious actors who are enemies of Western civilization and American culture.

If you have read Schweizer before, you know that he doesn’t beat around the bush. Instead, he names names and identifies events to ensure readers understand every issue. He is a clear, detailed, and honest broker, totally unlike what Rush used to call “drive-by journalism.” He digs into his subject so that the attentive reader, even the lazy reader like me, gets the picture—knows who the major players are and what they did or did not do. It’s gratifying to read a writer who takes his work seriously. The Invisible Coup lives up to this high standard.

Despite being fact-filled, the book moves quickly as Schweizer addresses the major migration threats to American cultural, political, and national security, posed by an assortment of bad actors. On the left, mass migration has been promoted as humanitarian, and the migration of distressed populations has been held up as a moral obligation. However, non-assimilating populations can destroy societal order and peace—as the Roman empire and modern Europe and America show, that’s a very real risk of mass immigration.

Criminality of immigrant populations is undeniable. On a small scale or with aggressive policing, a country can handle it. On a large scale, without a serious response, it disrupts economies, civic order, and peace. Unfortunately, powerful elites and socialist political movements encourage mass migration to America to get political power.

Schweizer vividly describes what mass migration has done and is doing to America. Currently, there are two primary types of mass immigration.

There’s a Latin American movement (especially connected with Mexico) that envisions “La Raza” (the race) effecting a “Reconquista” to reclaim the western half of the US that Mexicans of Spanish and Mestizo lineage held before Mexico lost the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). The strategy uses Latin American immigration, organized and influenced by state-based Mexican consulates, to encourage political activity and to support the election of individuals sympathetic to the cause. NGOs, as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), serve as advocate groups. Mexican political leaders are taking the project seriously.

Additionally, massive migration from Muslim nations worldwide brings ideological antagonism to Western values and non-Muslim people. Islam’s stated goal is destruction. The first method is straight-up wartime conquest. The second method, if Muslims have become a critical mass of the population, is to eliminate minority populations by genocide, forced slavery, or dhimmi (second-class) status. And the third tactic, which is the current tactic in America, where Muslims are still a minority, is to create domestic advocacy programs that operate from Muslim ghettos that function as ribats (fortifications/ghettos).

Mass immigration’s globalist promoters envision oligarchic power in a world without national identities and political power centers.

China has its own goal, and Schweizer focuses intently on China’s motives and actions as it seeks to become the world’s hegemon. To do this, China must destroy America, and it’s currently putting its efforts into mass migration to swallow America and the American republic with an overwhelming demographic shift. Schweizer writes about Chinese surrogacy and tourist births in America, which, combined with birthright citizenship, create massive numbers of Chinese raised in and loyal to China, but with American citizenship. Mass immigration also allows people loyal to China to reside in America.

Schweizer also addresses how immigration is a money funnel. Thus, we learn how foreign countries can funnel campaign contributions through visa holders.

No immigration discussion would be complete without looking at the Catholic Church’s extraordinary involvement in promoting uncontrolled migration. He does a splendid job of showing how socialist, liberation theology Catholic clergy have been malefactors of great impact in this mess that is uncontrolled migration.

Mr. Schweizer presents a strong, evidence-based argument that reminds the reader of Sir John Glubb’s essay on the death of empires—they die of suicide. One of the important factors in national suicide is allowing unrestrained in-migration of parasitic disruptors.

 

Mexico is a 'war zone' with the Mexican government and violent lawless cartels. Lives are at stake including vacationing Americans.

 

Drugs, drones, and bombs: Mexico’s most powerful cartel at the center of violent rampage

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel’s reprisal against Mexican authorities for the killing of its leader highlights the threat of the powerful group armed with military weapons and billions in wealth.

By Steven Richards 2-23-26 justthenews.com

By all reports, it was a usual Sunday morning in the wealthy Pacific port city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico when gunshots began to ring out and sirens began to blare. Mexican cartel bandits scattered across the city, lighting vehicles on fire and ambushing Mexican police and national guard. Scenes more reminiscent of a Middle East insurgency than a Mexican resort town began to circulate online. 

The culprits were members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Mexico’s most powerful and well-equipped cartel that has carried out several attacks against Mexican government forces in the past. The attacks followed the death of the cartel’s leader, Ruben Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” in a Mexican military operation last weekend. 

CJNG, as the name of the cartel is abbreviated, rose to power in Jalisco following a dispute with the infamous Sinaloa cartel once headed by the famed Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Since 2016, it has consolidated its control in Jalisco and operates a global drug trafficking empire with interests spanning from China to North Africa. Its primary source of income is moving crystal methamphetamine from Mexico to the United States. 

"International cartels and transnational organizations"

The widespread attacks vindicate the Trump administration’s warnings about the violent cartels, who export drugs to America but also wield “military grade weaponry” that poses a threat to Mexican law enforcement and the United States. 

Though initially hesitant to cooperate with American forces and crack down on the cartels, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has adopted a tougher stance towards the criminal organizations. Since Trump took office last year, the Mexican government has extradited at least 92 cartel members for trial in the United States. The Mexican armed forces have also increased operations against the cartels like the one that targeted El Mencho last weekend. 

Derek Maltz, a retired special agent in charge for the Drug Enforcement Agency, told Just the News that he has seen a shift in Mexican policy in recent months. 

“I've been a very big critic for many years now, on the Mexican government's soft on crime, hugs for drugs, policies down there,” Maltz told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Monday. “And what I've seen is completely the opposite.” 

Maltz said that he met with Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Civilian Protection Omar Harfuch on his visit to the United States and “it was very clear” that he and his team “were very serious about going after these cartels and working with America.” 

He added, “Action speaks louder than words, right? We’ve heard a lot of talk in the past, but now we’re seeing action.” 

For example, the Pentagon has been collaborating closely with Mexican security officials. Last summer, it hosted an intelligence-sharing effort with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and Mexican officials, Just the News reported.

“Trump has said to the President of Mexico, either you take care of these cartels or I will,” Fred Fleitz, the chief of staff of Trump’s National Security Council during his first term, told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Monday. “That led to the extraordinary action by the Mexican government to go up against cartels, which they never do. Right now, the government is at war with two of them, and we can see what happens when you go after them. This is a reaction to Trump's strong leadership.” 

Mexico’s most powerful cartel designated terrorists by the U.S.

President Donald Trump officially designated CJNG and other cartels as terrorist organizations last year as part of a U.S.-led effort to degrade the criminal organizations and secure America’s southern border. The president initially directed the Pentagon to draft options for military 

The U.S. Department of State has described CJNG as a “transnational organization with a presence in nearly every part of Mexico” that trafficks fentanyl, engages in extortion, smuggles migrants, steals oil and minerals, and trades in weaponry. 

“The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs,” President Trump said in his 2025 executive order designating the groups as terrorist organizations. 

According to the U.S. administration, cartels like CJNG pose a “national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime” because they have developed close ties with “extra-hemispheric actors” like other terrorist organizations, have engaged in insurgency, and have infiltrated governments in the Western Hemisphere. 

CJNG is one of Mexico’s richest cartels and a substantial portion of its billions of dollars in annual income comes from targeting Americans. Like other cartels, CJNG is engaged in the illegal drug trade, shipping crystal methamphetamine across the U.S. southern border as well as to countries like Canada and Australia. Its “de facto” control of the Mexican port of Manzanillo in Colima, Mexico, “allows the group to import precursor chemicals to produce fentanyl and methamphetamine,” according to the U.S. Director of National Intelligence.

But, the group has also diversified its income by embarking on novel ventures, including scamming U.S. seniors through timeshare fraud and extortion. Just days before the Mexican military operation targeted “El Mencho,” the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the Kovay Gardens Mexican timeshare resort, five individuals, and 17 companies associated with what it called a “timeshare fraud network” led by CJNG in Puerto Vallarta. 

According to the Treasury Department, CJNG would obtain information from insiders on U.S. owners of timeshare properties inside Mexico. A cartel-controlled call center would then contact the owners and attempt to offer services for advance payments. The scammers have also gone on to re-victimize the U.S. owners by posing as lawyers offering to help recover the lost funds, the Treasury Department said.

Cartels adopt military-grade weapons, outclass police

The cartels, and especially CJNG, present a new and dangerous problem. They are increasingly employing military grade weaponry like drones, improvised explosive devices, and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. 

Recent battles between CJNG and rival cartel cells have terrorized villages, some within just a few hundred miles of the U.S. border. The use of drones in particular has made them more dangerous, which they use to drop explosives on their enemies, both Mexican police and rivals.  

“CJNG has conducted intimidating acts of violence, including attacks on Mexican military and police with military grade weaponry, the use of drones to drop explosives on Mexican law enforcement, and assassinations or attempted assassinations of Mexican officials,” says the State Department. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that the adoption of such weaponry by the cartels makes them more dangerous than traditional criminal organizations or gangs. 

Not just local street gangs

“We cannot continue to just treat these guys as local street gangs,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with Catholic TV network EWTN last year. “They have weaponry that looks like what terrorists, in some cases armies, have.”

Cartels have steadily adopted military-grade weapons over the last decade, a trend that is fueled by the arms race between rivals. In 2015, CJNG was the first cartel to use a rocket-propelled grenade to shoot down a Mexican military helicopter that was participating in an operation against the gang. In many cases, Mexican police have found themselves at a disadvantage against the cartels’ military equipment.

“They’ve been a step ahead of us for years,” former state security chief Alfredo Ortega told The New York Times last year. He led operations in Michoacán, Mexico, a state where CJNG has recently battled its rivals.  

“They have unlimited resources and access to weapons and technology our local forces simply don’t. They came at us with Barrett .50-caliber semiautomatic rifles, and our local police forces didn’t even have anything close to that."

 

'Selective Law Enforcement' is definitely a serious problem in this once great Republic. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

 

Detroit Police Officers Punished For Cooperating With Border Patrol. ICE Tells Them To Apply For Jobs.

A Detroit police sergeant sued the city, arguing that its policy violates federal law.

By  Zach Jewell Feb 20, 2026 DailyWire.com

Two officers with the Detroit Police Department were suspended without pay for 30 days on Thursday for calling Customs and Border Protection agents on two separate occasions that resulted in the agents taking suspects into federal custody.

A Detroit Police sergeant and officer were accused by Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison of breaking department policy when they called Border Patrol agents during traffic stops on December 16 and February 9, ABC’s Detroit affiliate WXYZ reported. Bettison pushed to fire the officers, but the Board of Police Commissioners voted on Thursday to suspend the cops without pay. The officers were initially suspended with pay on February 12.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement responded to the development and told the suspended officers in a post on X, “We have a place for you, patriots.” Under its message, ICE posted the link to where people can apply to work for the agency.

While Detroit has not officially declared itself a “sanctuary city” for illegal immigrants, it effectively acts as on as the police are prohibited from cooperating with federal immigration agents. During the incident earlier this month, Detroit Police sergeant Denise Wallet was called to assist an officer who was dealing with a person who could not speak English. According to Chief Bettison, the sergeant called Border Patrol to help with translation services instead of using the police department’s translation service line.

Wallet, who has been with the department for 27 years, sued the city after she was suspended. In a complaint, Wallet said that she contacted Border Patrol simply to identify the suspect, “not to enforce immigration law or to inquire into the subject’s immigration status,” Michigan Advance reported. Wallet’s action was discovered by the police department during a bodycam audit, which showed the sergeant make “a verbal comment expressing her disagreement with the DPD policy regarding immigration and collaboration with the federal government.”

In the complaint, Wallet argues that the police department’s policy violates federal law, which states that “no state or local government entity or official may prohibit or restrict any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, federal immigration authorities information regarding the citizenship or immigration status of any individual.” Wallet also argues that her due process rights were violated since she was suspended without being given an opportunity to defend herself.

Leftist Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib praised Chief Bettison for punishing the police officers.

“Chief Bettison and I agree that we need to make sure that our community and our residents trust the people who are trying to keep us safe,” Tlaib said.

Michigan House Republican leader Matt Hall, however, said that the Detroit Police Department’s action could prompt the state House to review the department’s policies, saying that firing the officers would be “unacceptable,” The Detroit News reported.

After the board voted on Thursday to suspend the officers without pay, Bettison said he would no longer pursue firing the officers.

“This incident should make it clear, however, that as Chief, I will continue to vigorously enforce DPD’s policies,” he added.

While Detroit has not seen the same surge in federal immigration operations that cities like Minneapolis and Chicago have experienced, ICE agents routinely arrest suspected illegal immigrants in the Motor City and surrounding area.