US overdose deaths have plunged, but experts warn the ‘supply shock’ from Chinese precursors may only be a temporary fix

As Donald Trump travels to Beijing this week, fentanyl – and China’s role in its supply chain – remains an enduring point of acrimony in bilateral relations.

At a UN meeting in March, the US again accused China of failing to stop its chemical industry selling the precursors required to make the potent synthetic opioid, while China suggested the US was shifting the blame for its domestic drug problem.

Arrest of potential next leader found hiding in drainage pipe highlights renewed tactics – and fears of cartel infighting

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The golden coffin of “El Mencho”, the late leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG), had barely been lowered into the ground when the Mexican military dealt a second blow to the very top of the organisation this week.

As special forces descended on a ranch in the state of Nayarit, grainy drone footage showed El Mencho’s possible successor, Audias Flores, alias “El Jardinero”, being hauled from a drainage pipe he had tried to hide in, all without a shot being fired.

Indictment accuses high-level officials in Sinaloa of offences such as drug trafficking, weapons offences and kidnapping

The US justice department has charged the governor of Sinaloa and nine other current and former officials for alleged ties to the Sinaloa cartel, accusing them of aiding in the massive importation of illicit narcotics into the United States .

Some officials were members of Mexico’s progressive ruling party, Morena, posing a political conundrum for Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum as she seeks to offset mounting pressures from the Trump administration.

Everything Korean – from K-pop and skincare to food and clothing – is booming in popularity in Chile, Mexico and Brazil

On the polished flagstones of a Santiago cultural centre’s forecourt, four Chilean girls dance in energetic union, counting their steps aloud in Korean.

In front of them, a YouTube video with 1.3bn views plays atop a speaker throbbing to the beat of How You Like That, by the K-pop megastars Blackpink.

As Sinaloa’s conflict grinds on, firearms traced to recent US sales are increasingly linked to Arizona

When war broke out within the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organisations, people hoped it would last just a few months.

But more than a year and a half later it is still going, fuelled by a flow of firearms from the US – specifically from Arizona, which has surged past Texas to become the top source of guns seized in Mexico and traced to a recent US purchase.

Bolivian interior ministry says Sebastián Marset is being extradited to US, where he’s wanted for money laundering

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Sebastián Marset, an alleged Uruguayan drug trafficker and one of South America’s most wanted criminals, has been arrested in Bolivia.

Marset, 34, is accused of trafficking tonnes of cocaine from South America to Europe, and also of having ordered the murder of a Paraguayan prosecutor who was shot dead as he honeymooned on a Colombian beach in 2022.

Experts documented murder, torture and disappearances under Nayib Bukele’s policy targeting gangs

The draconian mass incarceration policy of El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, may have led to crimes against humanity, according to a new study by legal experts.

By locking up 1.4% of the population without due process, Bukele turned El Salvador from one of Latin America’s most violent countries into one of its least violent – but at the cost of human rights and the rule of law.

Mexico’s president says there is ‘no risk’ for those visiting for Fifa games after military killed drug lord ‘El Mencho’

• Violence in Mexico after military kills notorious drug cartel boss – a visual guide

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said that there is “no risk” for visitors coming to Fifa World Cup games scheduled to be held in the country, after the death of a top cartel boss triggered a wave of retaliatory violence from gunmen who blocked roads and attacked security forces across the country.

The Mexican military attempted to detain “El Mencho”, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in a dawn raid on Sunday, leading to a firefight in which he was fatally wounded, before dying while being airlifted to hospital.

Killing of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader sparks wave of violence across western Mexico

• Analysis: Mexico faces uphill battle to appease kingpin Trump

• Who was El Mencho?

Mexican authorities tracked down and killed “El Mencho”, one of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers, by following a romantic partner to his safe house near a picturesque mountain town, the country’s defence secretary has revealed.

In a press conference, officials provided the first details about the operation that led to the death of the leader of Mexico’s most powerful organised crime group, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

Island country only has oil enough to last 15-20 days, and 12-hour blackouts have become commonplace

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has warned that Donald Trump’s move to slap new tariffs on countries sending oil to Cuba could trigger a humanitarian crisis on the island, which is already suffering from chronic fuel shortages and regular blackouts.

The US president signed an executive order on Thursday declaring a national emergency and laying the groundwork for such tariffs, ratcheting up the pressure to topple the communist government in Havana.

Claudia Sheinbaum denied move was response to pressure from the US, after Trump said ‘zero’ oil would go to Cuba

Mexico has cancelled a shipment of oil to Cuba, the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, appeared to confirm on Tuesday, but she insisted the decision was “sovereign” and not a response to pressure from the US.

Fuel shortages are causing increasingly severe blackouts in Cuba, and Mexico has been the island’s biggest oil supplier since the US blocked shipments from Venezuela last month.

The native of Thunder Bay, Canada, has been compared to Pablo Escobar and El Chapo – but is he really as big a figure as US prosecutors have claimed?

To compete at the highest levels of snowboarding, racers must master carving, edging and balance at speeds stretching the limits of imagination. They can fluently read the nuances of snow and fine-tune their bodies to cross the finish line faster than anyone else.

The Canadian snowboarder Ryan Wedding had these skills – but also the quality that catapults amateurs to an elite level: a highly competitive instinct to succeed that can at times manifest in a desire to crush fellow competitors.

Ryan Wedding turned himself in at US consulate in Mexico City and is due to appear in court in California on Monday

Ryan Wedding, the Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin, has been arrested after turning himself in at the US embassy in Mexico, law enforcement officials announced on Friday.

Wedding, 44, had been sought by the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for his role in overseeing what the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, called the “one of the most prolific and violent drug-trafficking organizations” in the world.