Drug Cartel | featured news

Two decapitated bodies were found at the entrance to one of Mexico's most luxurious shopping malls on Wednesday and prosecutors announced that more than 47,000 people have been killed in drug violence in the five years since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown against drug cartels.

Mexico's hyperviolent Zetas drug cartel appears to be launching what may be one of the first campaigns by an organized crime group to silence commentary on the Internet....

It seems as if violence is everywhere, but it's really on the run. Yes, thousands of people have died in bloody unrest from Africa to Pakistan, while terrorists plot bombings and kidnappings. Wars drag on in Iraq and Afghanistan. In peaceful Norway, a man massacred 69 youths in July. In Mexico, headless bodies turn up, victims of drug cartels. This month eight people died in a shooting in a California hair salon.

Attorney General Eric Holder lashed back Friday at Republican congressional leaders who suggested he misled a House committee when he testified earlier this year that he was not aware of details about a flawed federal gun investigation that allowed hundreds of weapons to flow to violent Mexican drug cartel enforcers.

Five years after President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against Mexico's five main drug cartels, the nation is now dominated by two powerful organizations that appear poised for a one-on-one battle to control drug markets and trafficking routes....

It’s not the subplot to a Jerry Bruckheimer movie: drug dealers in Mexico really are kidnapping computer whizzes and forcing them to hack into bank systems and program credit card fraud scams in order to acquire additional funds on top of what they haul in from selling drugs.

Dwarfed by surrounding reporters and with her head bowed to avoid the television cameras, the slender 16-year-old hesitated slightly before she answered the question. "I'm a hitwoman," she said.

Police say they have arrested 25 drug cartel members or collaborators in central Mexico, including a police chief, two commanding officers and seven agents suspected of aiding traffickers.

Mexican cartels are taking advantage of U.S. gun laws to buy thousands of weapons that are being used in an escalating drug war that has claimed more than 31,000 lives since late 2006, experts and law enforcement officials tell NBC News.

Mexico's divided Congress is unlikely to pass President Felipe Calderon's pivotal plans to reform the police and combat money laundering, risking a major setback in the war against violent drug cartels.