Is the New Generation Becoming the Most Powerful Cartel in Mexico? Joshua Partlow - The Washington Post
go to original April 9, 2015

Mexico's Jalisco New Generation cartel members holding hostages they accuse of kidnapping in a video uploaded to the internet in March 2014. (BDN Videos)

There's a new name to worry about in Mexico's ever-churning drug war.

They call themselves the New Generation of Jalisco, and they just pulled off one of the most audacious attacks against Mexican authorities in years.

Earlier this week, on a lonely road in western Mexico between the resort beach town of Puerto Vallarta and the state capital of Guadalajara, cartel henchmen with assault rifles and grenade launchers ambushed a convoy of state police, killing 15 of them and wounding five more. That brought the total number of police killed in the state to 21, just over the past three weeks, according to the Mexican newspaper El Universal.

This is not just an attack on the police, but "an attack on the security of the state, an attack on the people's security, and it's bringing crisis to the state," said Jose Guillermo Garcia Murillo, a professor at the University of Guadalajara.

Mexican cartels rise and fall, and analysts say New Generation is now rising faster than any. According to the Treasury Department, which put New Generation's leaders on the drug kingpin list this week, the cartel is operating in several Mexican states and forging underworld ties around the globe.

Read the rest at The Washington Post

Related: Meet Mexico's Fastest Growing Drug Cartel. It Even Builds Its Own Rifles (GlobalPost)

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!