Mexican steel tycoon Alonso Ancira Elizondo on Tuesday agreed to pay US$219 million in damages to state oil company PEMEX to avoid trial for money laundering and corruption.

As a result of a joint investigation with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) blocked dozens of bank accounts believed to be belonging to a Romanian gang allegedly involved in skimming ATMs in Cancun and other tourist destinations across the country.

The Mexican National Guard seized almost 84,000 fentanyl pills and nine kilos of crystal meth in what began as a routine traffic stop in Ahome, Sinaloa, according to an officialstatement issued on Wednesday.

Mexican authorities say they will not pursue criminal charges against former Defense Secretary, Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, who was arrested last year in the United States on drug trafficking and money laundering charges and later sent home to face justice under a controversial agreement with Mexico.

An international press freedoms watchdog has found that Mexico was the deadliest country in the world for media workers in 2020, with nine reporters killed in the last twelve months.

Mexico’s parliament has passed a new law imposing restrictions on foreign intelligence activities in a move the United States has warned will make citizens of both countries “less safe.”

Regina Martínez spent years exposing the nexus between politics and organized crime in the state of Veracruz. After she was brutally murdered in her own bathroom, prosecutors blamed a love affair gone wrong. The more journalists looked into the case, the less likely the official story looked.

The U.S. has dropped drug trafficking and money laundering charges against retired General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda who served as Mexico’s defense secretary between 2012 and 2018 and was arrested in Los Angeles last month, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.

Transnational organized crime is “an acute and devastating threat” to the United States as it’s causing thousands of drug overdose deaths, fosters corruption and decreases citizen’s confidence in government and banks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said.

The president of Mexico’s tempestuous relationship with the country’s press is putting journalists at risk of serious harm, with death threats being made against individual reporters and publications alike, according to an international press-freedom advocacy group.

Prosecutors in the U.S. have indicted two men over an alleged scheme to kidnap and torture migrants from Cuba so as to extort money from their victims’ families.

A Mexican journalist who reported on crime was found on Wednesday decapitated near the railroad in the town of Motzorongo, in the eastern state of Veracruz.

Research shows that gun smugglers have taken to trafficking weapons across the U.S.-Mexico border in small batches so as to avoid detection and seizures by the authorities.

Although the United States has given no indication that it is presently investigating any of the country’s former presidents, Mexico’s current leader has said he would be willing to extradite one of his predecessors were he asked to do so.

Prosecutors in the US have indicted dozens of members of a Mexican cartel, including a leader who shares a namesake with one of America’s best-loved wrestlers, on drug trafficking charges after they allegedly laundered their proceeds through a Western-wear store in Texas.

After allegations were made that some of them were involved in a bribery scheme, Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador proposed on Monday that a referendum should decide whether former presidents should continue to be protected from prosecution in corruption cases.

Columbian authorities said they intercepted on Sunday a submarine transporting more than one ton of cocaine believed to be destined for one of the most powerful Mexican cartels. 

Mexico’s president has said that a recent online video, which allegedly shows public officials sifting through large piles of cash, exposes the “filth of the regime of corruption” under previous administrations.

The president of Mexico has accused his predecessors of allowing the country to become a “narco-state”, as cartel violence continues to rage and allegations of corruption mount against high-profile former officials.

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.