Crime, Safety, and the Police

[Captain Solo]

That area is 5 miles South of the border, run down, heavy traffic, known gangland.

The bar is sleazy, plays Mexican music, some nights with live bands. Women at see the P are known older, chunky, heavy, not attractive to North American tastes.

It will reopen fairly soon, good for a bad taste of an authentic Mexican pussy bar, but why bother skipping La Zona Norte with much better safety, selection of girls, food and entertainment and convenience.

[Captain Solo]

Independently confirmed by multiple sources, street girls will be taxed US $250 a month starting June 2025 by an unnamed cartel. Street girls are fearful for their lives so they would not disclose more details.

$250 is the equivalent of 10 street sessions. The average street girls would do 5 sessions a day out of 20 days a month. Many don't even book a session but they would still have to pay. So the average tax rate is about 10%. Cartels have been taxing all food stalls and street vendors, so it's just their expansion. A few street girls said they may not return to work in Tijuana with this tax.

2 new guys are selling loudly and aggressively in the alley, signs that a new cartel has taken over the territory with new ways of working.

[Captain Solo]

El Chapo's family flew into Tijuana then crossed into US. They need protection if El Chapo and his sons sing out against other cartels' chiefs. US will have intels to further destroy drug cartels in Mexico.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/w...po-family.html

Cartel Family Members Cross Border in Apparent Deal With USA, Official Says.

Mexico's security secretary confirmed reports that 17 family members of Sinaloa Cartel leaders had entered the United States, likely as part of a deal with the Trump administration.

By Alan Yuhas May 14, 2025.

A group of family members of Sinaloa Cartel leaders crossed into the United States last week, likely as part of a deal with the Trump administration, Mexico's secretary of security said on Tuesday evening.

For days, rumors had spread that 17 relatives, including one of the ex-wives of the crime boss known as El Chapo, had flown from a cartel stronghold to Tijuana, Mexico, and then crossed into the United States. A news outlet, Pie de Nota, reported that they had surrendered to USA Federal authorities there, citing anonymous sources.

The Sinaloa Cartel, co-founded by Joaquían Guzmán Loera, known as El Chapo, is one of the most powerful criminal groups in the world, although it has been divided by violence between rival factions as several of its leaders face prison and prosecution in the United States.

When asked about reports that the family members had entered the United States on Monday, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said "there is no more information" than what she had seen.

But the security secretary, Omar García Harfuch, then confirmed late Tuesday that relatives of the cartel leader Ovidio Guzmán López, one of El Chapo's four sons, had surrendered to American authorities. Mr. Guzmán López was extradited to the United States in 2023.

"It is evident that his family is going to the USA Because of a negotiation or a plea bargain that the Department of Justice is giving him," Mr. García Harfuch told the Mexican network Radio Fórmula.

"The family that left were not targets and were not being sought by the Mexican authorities," he added. Mexican officials were waiting for the USA Department of Justice to share information, he said.

He said that he believed Mr. GuzmánLópez was naming members of criminal organizations, likely as part of a cooperation agreement.

Jeffrey Lichtman, a lawyer who has represented the elder Mr. Guzman and his sons, did not respond to several messages seeking comment.

Ms. Sheinbaum told reporters on Wednesday morning that USA Officials "have to inform" their Mexican counterparts whether there was an agreement or not, urging transparency with both the American public and Mexicans, and noting that Mexican soldiers had died in the operation to capture Mr. Guzmán Lopez.

Ovidio Guzmán López plans to plead guilty to federal drug charges, according to court papers, in what would make him the first of El Chapo's sons, often called LOS Chapitos, to acknowledge guilt in a USA Federal courthouse.

Mr. Guzmáand López was twice captured by the Mexican authorities over the last decade. He was first detained, briefly, in 2019, until his own gunmen engaged in a bloody battle with the Mexican military in the city of Culiacán and forced his release.

Then he was arrested by Mexican security forces in 2023 in that same city and quickly extradited to the United States. Along with a full brother, two half brothers and one of his father's former business partners, Mr. Guzmáand López was named in a sprawling indictment.

His full brother, Joaquíand Guzmán López, has also been in negotiations with federal authorities in Chicago to reach his own plea deal.

Ever since their father, El Chapo, was sentenced to life in prison by a USA Federal judge in 2019, the American authorities have turned their sights on his four sons. Federal investigators opened a quiet back channel to the sons, making clear to them that if they ever grew tired of the dangerous narco-trafficking life, they could turn themselves in at any time.

Joaquíand Guzmán López, using the back channel, kidnapped his father's former business partner, Ismael Zambada Garcia, in Mexico this summer and forcibly flew him across the border into USA Custody.

The security secretary stressed the Mexican role in Ovidio Guzmán López's case, saying, "Ovidio was detained 100 percent by the Mexican authorities. "

The security minister's confirmation came the same day that the USA Department of Justice announced new charges against men accused of being Sinaloa Cartel leaders, the first since President Trump designated it a terrorist organization. Those charges include narco-terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering.

In announcing the charges, the USA Attorney for the Southern District of California, Adam Gordon, directly addressed cartel leaders in a news conference, telling them they would be "betrayed by your friends" and "hounded by your enemies. "

The movement of the family members to the United States — and the speculation that it could mean a plea agreement with the USA Government — has fueled high-profile discussion in Mexico about who might be implicated by imprisoned cartel leaders.

"The Chapitos are going to sing, and we're going to learn many things," Senator Ricardo Anaya, an opposition lawmaker, told reporters this week. "Because the North American government doesn't offer immunity in exchange for nothing, they offer it in exchange for information."

Alan Feuer, Emiliano Rodríguez Mega and James Wagner contributed reporting.

[OPIllini]

Cueva del Peludo is HK's owner headquarter. Have no idea victims were HK's workers or mongers.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJtRR68R...M1MGJkZA%3D%3D

BAL-EAN AA 5 PEOPLE IN A BAR IN #tijuana.

Tonight they were attacked with bullets in the parking lot of the Bar "La Cueva del Peludo" which is located on the Diaz Ordaz boulevard in the La Mesa neighborhood.

The injured were transported in ambulances; to different hospitals for treatment.

The police are already on the scene.

I'd imagine they'll be closed for some time. No wonder I couldn't access their website this week. Was thinking of going there, but now definitely won't.

[Captain Solo]

Cueva del Peludo is HK's owner headquarter. Have no idea victims were HK's workers or mongers.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJtRR68R...M1MGJkZA%3D%3D

BAL-EAN AA 5 PEOPLE IN A BAR IN #tijuana.

Tonight they were attacked with bullets in the parking lot of the Bar "La Cueva del Peludo" which is located on the Diaz Ordaz boulevard in the La Mesa neighborhood.

The injured were transported in ambulances; to different hospitals for treatment.

The police are already on the scene.

[Captain Solo]

Very sad circumstance. Anybody know Tiffany Gabriela AKA Aylin of Hong Kong?

https://www.instagram.com/p/DI5BvgDp...M1MGJkZA%3D%3D

Tiffany Gabriela, 24, is the young woman who was found in a state of putrefaction.

The young woman, originally from Monterrey, Nuevo León, has already been identified. She was working in the city of Tijuana.

She was a dancer at the famous Hon Kong bar in the north zone, the same bar that was two blocks from the apartment where she was found dead.

The prosecutor's office began the investigation to clarify her death.

Because neighbors indicated that in the last two weeks they heard screams and fights inside that apartment, which Aylin's partner routinely entered.

[Jim0129]

Honestly, I wish Tijuana was safer, I'm sure I'd enjoy it. I love a good third world seedy hobbying area as much as the next john, but there's just too much risk with Tijuana, even as close as it is. The fact that I need to fly freakin half way round the world to Thailand to enjoy some LBFM is ridiculous when Tijuana is so close, but in the end, I got to be alive to enjoy getting off. I've had my fair share of violent encounters in life, and I do all that I can to avoid it, the violence I mean. And believe you me, you don't want to be messing around with any place that'll do this to you:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/27/us/mi...nts/index.html

If it's on CNN, then it must be true.

I've actually seen this case on Mexican media, this couple went into a time share contract and even went and used it the previous year, they had the audacity to try to use it again when they had denied all the payments on the credit card for the time share.

This is a real problem that Mexican merchants have with American credit cards, a lot of Americans pay for stuff in Mexico and when they go back to the states they deny all the charges, right now there are several restaurants in Rosarito and Puerto Nuevo that do not accept credit cards from anyone, including Mexicans. I asked one of the waiters why and he told me that this is the reason, but since they can't just deny payment with a credit card from Americans (In Mexico the banks investigate with the merchant and they don't take just your word for it) they end up not taking credit cards from.

Everyone.

[AmorPorFavor]

Yeah I had seen news about this before and when searching around on different articles you find out much more than the biased US media gives.

The biggest details that I read not mentioned in most media reports is that the company went through Interpol to get the arrest warrant not just Mexican authorities. The couple had also rented out the property over 1500 times and usually for a profit which seems to be the reason that the resort company said they didn't follow the contract.

Many details we are obviously unaware of without seeing the contract and FB details.

Definitely not an issue for 99.9 % of those that go to Mexico.

I have stayed with Palace Resorts at a hotel near Moon Palace called LE Blanc. Everything was first class and well run. They are a popular hotel chain in Mexico. Maybe don't buy a time share, then break the rules then stiff them for over $100 k and you will be fine.

[Sol12]

Tijuana and most other tourist spots in Mexico (like Cancun referenced in the article) are generally very safe IF you don't do anything stupid. Before even reading the article I assumed the couple referenced must've done something stupid to land in jail and that was confirmed after reading the article. Whether the chargebacks were justified or not who goes back to the same location in another country, where you're unfamiliar with what the laws are, after charging back over $100 K you spent? If it was that bad that you had to chargeback that much why go back to the same spot, let alone the same country? I'll tell you what if I ever charged back thousands of dollars in hotel fees or whatever at HK I'd never in a million years have the balls to go back anywhere near there LOL. IMO they displayed poor judgement and that's completely on them.

Yeah I had seen news about this before and when searching around on different articles you find out much more than the biased US media gives.

The biggest details that I read not mentioned in most media reports is that the company went through Interpol to get the arrest warrant not just Mexican authorities. The couple had also rented out the property over 1500 times and usually for a profit which seems to be the reason that the resort company said they didn't follow the contract.

Many details we are obviously unaware of without seeing the contract and FB details.

Definitely not an issue for 99.9 % of those that go to Mexico.

[BrotherMouzone]

Honestly, I wish Tijuana was safer, I'm sure I'd enjoy it. I love a good third world seedy hobbying area as much as the next john, but there's just too much risk with Tijuana, even as close as it is. The fact that I need to fly freakin half way round the world to Thailand to enjoy some LBFM is ridiculous when Tijuana is so close, but in the end, I got to be alive to enjoy getting off. I've had my fair share of violent encounters in life, and I do all that I can to avoid it, the violence I mean. And believe you me, you don't want to be messing around with any place that'll do this to you:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/27/us/mi...nts/index.html

If it's on CNN, then it must be true.

Tijuana and most other tourist spots in Mexico (like Cancun referenced in the article) are generally very safe IF you don't do anything stupid. Before even reading the article I assumed the couple referenced must've done something stupid to land in jail and that was confirmed after reading the article. Whether the chargebacks were justified or not who goes back to the same location in another country, where you're unfamiliar with what the laws are, after charging back over $100 K you spent? If it was that bad that you had to chargeback that much why go back to the same spot, let alone the same country? I'll tell you what if I ever charged back thousands of dollars in hotel fees or whatever at HK I'd never in a million years have the balls to go back anywhere near there LOL. IMO they displayed poor judgement and that's completely on them.

[Newton York]

Honestly, I wish Tijuana was safer, I'm sure I'd enjoy it. I love a good third world seedy hobbying area as much as the next john, but there's just too much risk with Tijuana, even as close as it is. The fact that I need to fly freakin half way round the world to Thailand to enjoy some LBFM is ridiculous when Tijuana is so close, but in the end, I got to be alive to enjoy getting off. I've had my fair share of violent encounters in life, and I do all that I can to avoid it, the violence I mean. And believe you me, you don't want to be messing around with any place that'll do this to you:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/27/us/mi...nts/index.html

If it's on CNN, then it must be true.

[Sol12]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHrBI...c4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Supposedly they murdered somebody by the medical lane back to the border.

That area has been having killings for over a year. Lots of drug addicts and those that sell the drugs to them will fight to get that business.

[Nothing24]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHrBI...c4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Supposedly they murdered somebody by the medical lane back to the border.

[Captain Solo]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/w...p-tariffs.html

Several cartel operatives said that for the first time in years, they genuinely feared arrest or death at the hands of the authorities.

Investigators collecting evidence last month at a crime scene in a residential neighborhood of Culiacáand, Mexico. Credit.

By Natalie Kitroeff and Paulina Villegas Photographs by Daniele Volpe.

Reporting from Culiacáand, Mexico March 2, 2025.

One cartel leader says he's trying to figure out how to protect his family in case the American military strikes inside Mexico. Another says he's already gone into hiding, rarely leaving his home. Two young men who produce fentanyl for the cartel say they have shut down all their drug labs.

A barrage of arrests, drug seizures and lab busts by the Mexican authorities in recent months has struck the behemoth Sinaloa Cartel, according to Mexican officials and interviews with six cartel operatives, forcing at least some of its leaders to scale back on fentanyl production in Sinaloa state, their stronghold.

The cartels have sown terror across Mexico and caused untold damage in the United States. But here in Culiacáand, the state capital, the dynamic seems to be shifting, at least for now. Cartel operatives say they've had to move labs to other areas of the country or temporarily shut down production.

"Every day there have been arrests and seizures," Omar Harfuch, the Mexican security minister, said at a recent news conference after returning from several days in Sinaloa. The detentions have led to "a constant weakening" of the cartel, he said.

The country's law enforcement seized nearly as much fentanyl in the last five months as it did in the previous year. Ms. Sheinbaum's administration says it has made nearly 900 arrests in Sinaloa alone since October.

Image.

Four police officers wearing helmets and carrying rifles.

The police at a crime scene on a crossroad in Culiacáand, the capital of Sinaloa, Mexico.

Then, last week, the Mexican government said it had begun sending to the United States more than two dozen cartel operatives wanted by the American authorities. It was a clear signal to the Trump administration that Mexico was eager to fight the cartels, though Mr. Trump said on the same day that he was still not satisfied with the government's efforts and that tariffs would go into effect on Tuesday.

"Criminal groups have not felt this level of pressure in such a long time," said Jaime López, a security analyst based in Mexico City.

In interviews, cartel operatives agreed. Some said they were selling off property and firing unessential personnel to make up for lost income from the dent in the fentanyl trade. Others said they were investing money in advanced equipment to detect American government drones, which the United States flew into Mexico during the Biden and Obama administrations as well.

Criminal organizations in Mexico have a long history of surviving efforts to dismantle them, or simply splintering off into new groups. But several operatives said that for the first time in years, they genuinely feared arrest or death at the hands of the authorities.

Experts noted that a decline in production in Culiacáand wouldn't necessarily affect the flow of fentanyl north, since the drug is easy to make and the cartel can move its labs elsewhere. And it isn't clear how long any disruption in Culiacáand would last. Cooks and experts said they expected the cartel would restart labs in the city if the pressure subsided or the group needed an influx of cash.

But the crackdown has had an immediate impact, they said, and some cited the newfound pressure by Mr. Trump.

Image.

A police officer wearing a mask writes something on papers on a clipboard.

Investigators doing paperwork at a crime scene in a residential neighborhood of Culiacáand.

"Trump established a deadline, and we are seeing the results of everything we could have seen in years being done in a month," Mr. López said. "The government is sending a message that when it really wants to, it can exert that kind of pressure. ".

But even before tariff threats intensified, Ms. Sheinbaum had showed her willingness to take on the cartels as soon as she took office on Oct. 1.

Her predecessor and political ally, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, had pursued a strategy he called "hugs not bullets," focusing on the root causes of crime and generally avoiding violent confrontations with criminals.

While she pledged allegiance to her mentor's vision, Ms. Sheinbaum made headlines with a rash of battles between soldiers and cartel gunmen that left dozens dead earlier in her presidency.

Cartel members said they were making their own preparations for the heightened pressure under Mr. Trump. American officials say the United States has recently begun expanding drone flights into Mexico to detect drug labs, and last week the administration designated several cartels as terrorist organizations.

In interviews, cartel operatives said they were importing scanners to detect drones and hiring more people with experience operating and tracking such aircraft. They also said they had increased arms shipments from the United States, the source of most of the illegal weapons used by criminals in Mexico.

Image.

Various cookware and tools on a white tile floor.

Tools needed to produce fentanyl lying on the floor of a house belonging to a drug cartel.

Inside the Trump administration, there is still some division over whether the United States should take unilateral military action in Mexico against the cartels, or whether it should work more closely with the Mexican government in combating the drug trade.

Mexico's cartels are known for amassing military-grade weapons, including I. E. the. S and land mines, yet the operatives acknowledged in interviews that they could scarcely compete with the American military's arsenal. Even so, one high-level operative said the cartel would be prepared to respond if raids or strikes were carried out.

"If a helicopter comes here and soldiers drop out, 20 or 30 of them," the operative said, "there's no way we'the just sit here with our arms crossed. ".

One cartel fentanyl cook, speaking from jail, said he was actually in favor of stepped up enforcement by the Mexican government, because he believed that curbing cartel violence could prevent the "deaths of innocents. ".

Last week, Mexican forces arrested two big players within the Sinaloa Cartel who were close associates of Iváand Archivaldo Guzmáand Salazar, the most powerful son of the drug lord known as El Chapo. After news of the captures spread, the Mexican military deployed a surge of soldiers throughout the city, setting up checkpoints and blocking off entire blocks.

Despite the arrests, the violence in Culiacáand keeps claiming lives. On a recent Wednesday morning, the body of a man appeared face down in the middle of a street at a busy intersection, his hands tied and blood pouring from his head.

Image.

A man stands over a body in the middle of a street at night.

A crime scene in a residential neighborhood of Culiacáand.

The next day, a different man's body was found in a residential neighborhood nearby, with his feet bound and a plastic bag over his head. Officials at the scene said it appeared the victim had been shot dead on the spot.

Ms. Sheinbaum has defended her record on fighting the cartels and hit back hard against the Trump White House's accusation that the Mexican government has "an intolerable alliance" with drug traffickers.

"We are combating organized crime groups, there can be no doubt about this," she said at a news conference last month, adding, "We are going after organized crime. ".

But few dispute that corruption is rampant in Mexico. The last major crackdown on organized crime was led by a security chief who was later convicted in USA Federal court of taking bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel.

Cartel members said the only reason the government hadn't really fought them until recently was because they'the bought off enough officials. One cartel cell leader said he doubted that this new effort would seriously damage the cartel because the group could ensure its survival by bribing key officials.

"There are always weak points," he said, "there are always loose ends we can get to. ".

When asked how it feels to be labeled terrorists, the cartel operatives' responses ranged from apathetic to indignant.

Image.

Two soldiers in wearing camouflage and helmets and carrying rifles.

Members of the Mexican Army protecting an area in Culiacáand where, hours later, Mexican authorities would confirm the arrest of two high-ranking members of El Chapo's faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.

The fentanyl cook in jail argued that the real terrorists were the users in the United States whose insatiable appetite for the drug fuels the trade. The two other young cooks agreed that the worst actors were north of the border: the arms dealers who turn a huge profit smuggling weapons into Mexico that kill so many people.

The high-level operative said he considered himself a businessman, not a terrorist.

"We talk about supply and demand," he said, "not AK-47's, much less bombing Times Square. ".

Even if the government bombs every drug lab in Mexico, he said, it won't make Americans less dependent on the drug, which is one of the most addictive synthetic opioids available. He said that, with the right ingredients, fentanyl can be synthesized almost anywhere — in tiny kitchens or rudimentary mountain labs — and that as long as Americans want fentanyl, it will get made.

"Demand will never end, the product is still being consumed," the operative said. "Addiction means demand never ends. ".

Natalie Kitroeff is the Mexico City bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. More about Natalie Kitroeff.

[Cocr Brotheler]

Thank you for the data flapjack! Factoring in inflation wonder how the Clinton and Bush II debts compare with Trump 1st and Bidenator? All of them / their administrations guilty of it. They did it in Rome and EVERY country that has ever used fiat currency not backed by anything which are most countries. And eventually all the fiats go to zero!

Is why when I can I buy some physical gold and silver although I feel I already have enough of silver (gets heavy) and gold getting expensive.