Every quarter, members of OCCRP’s Accomplice program submit questions to an OCCRP journalist about one of their investigations. For our first Q&A, Co-Founder Paul Radu answered questions about our recent investigation into a Romanian criminal syndicate that we’ve dubbed the “Riviera Maya gang,” which made over 1 billion dollars from rigged ATMs, mainly in Mexico.

Authorities in Mexico have detained the leader of one of the country’s powerful criminal syndicates after he made threats against the government following the arrest of several of his family members last month.

Two weeks after his extradition from Spain, former director of Mexico’s state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) pleaded on Wednesday not guilty to corruption charges involving bribes in the infamous Lava Jato operation that revolves around the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

The president of Mexico has again refused to deploy the army against the country’s cartels, saying “evil must be confronted with good” in response to a showcasing of firepower by one criminal organisation in a video posted online.

Experts have identified the remains of one of the 43 Mexican students who went missing in the town of Iguala six years ago. The group was allegedly believed to have been abducted by police, handed over to a local crime gang and executed.

Footage uploaded to social media shows the dramatic aftermath of a crash-landing in Mexico, shortly after the plane had been used to smuggle almost 400 kilograms of cocaine into the country.

At the request of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Mexican authorities are investigating a Romanian organized crime group that OCCRP recently exposed as running one of the largest ATM scams in the world from its Cancún headquarters.

The alleged leader of a notorious Mexican cartel has issued a tearful message on social media, threatening retaliation against the government for the detention of his mother, sister and girlfriend following a spate of violence over the weekend.

Authorities in Mexico have reportedly identified several tequila vendors as front companies in an alleged money laundering operation run by one of the country’s most powerful drug syndicates. The move reflects a broader change in tactics by Mexico’s government, targeting cartels' pockets and the systemic causes of crime rather than opting for direct military action.

Financial authorities in Mexico have frozen nearly 2,000 bank accounts with ties to the country’s second most powerful drug trafficking organisation just days after one of its leaders was shot dead during a concert live-streamed on social media.

Law enforcement authorities in Mexico have captured a fugitive cartel leader wanted by the US for the 2010 slaying of a pregnant American consulate worker and her husband.

It’s been an eventful week for Mexico, with the extradition of two high-profile cartel members to the US, threats made against a national newspaper by organised criminals and the seizure of a gold-plated assault rifle from the leader of a murderous syndicate calling themselves ‘The Women with Moustaches.’

Mexican authorities made a gruesome discovery this weekend when they exhumed the bodies of 25 people from a mass grave near a farmhouse just outside of Guadalajara - against the backdrop of increasing cartel violence across the southwestern state of Jalisco.

The disappearance of Mexican journalist Victor Fernando Alvarez, whose head was allegedly found this month, has exposed divisions between law enforcement and the media as violence against journalists intensifies in a cartel-controlled Mexican port.

An armed group has pulled off a daring heist at a gold mine in Mexico amid warnings that the coronavirus pandemic has made the sector vulnerable to organised crime.

Alleged members of a Mexican narco cartel are delivering groceries to low-income families to help them overcome the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, a blog covering narco cartels in Mexico reported on Sunday.

Authorities in Mexico have frozen several financial accounts that may have been used by the notorious Sinaloa Cartel to launder drug money.

Authorities in Mexico have reportedly arrested a former public official accused of embezzling more than US$1 million from the country’s corruption-riddled state-owned oil company.

As the coronavirus is keeping the world locked down, some governments are using the pandemic as an excuse to crack down on press freedom and access to information. 

In a series of nationwide raids, US authorities made more than 600 arrests and issued 350 indictments against suspected members of one of the world’s most violent gangs - the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación or CJNG.