Attorney General Merrick Garland announces the Justice Department charged several leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, a transnational drug trafficking organization based in Sinaloa, Mexico, and several of its facilitators across the world. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption
A small line of cars waits to cross the Cordova Bridge of the Americas at the United States-Mexico border in 2020. On March 10, Texan officials advised against spring break travel to Mexico, citing the dangers of violent crime. Paul Ratje/Agence France-Presse/AFP via Get hide caption
Matamoros, Mexico, is a stronghold for various criminal organizations, particularly the Gulf Cartel. U.S. and Mexican officials say four U.S. citizens were abducted at gunpoint in the city on Friday. Alfredo Estrella/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Journalist and activist Gildo Garza, right, reads the names of murdered journalists at a demonstration outside the federal attorney general's office in Mexico City. Courtesy Gildo Garza hide caption
Court documents state that Emma Coronel Aispuro (center) controlled a vast fortune earned from the sale of multi-ton cocaine, heroin and marijuana shipments. Craig Ruttle/AP hide caption
Pedestrians walk past Mexico's Consulate General in Los Angeles in October, shortly after ex-Mexican Defense Secretary Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda's arrest at Los Angeles International Airport at the DEA's request. Charges were later dropped. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
President Trump said in an interview this week that he intends to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations despite resistance from Mexican officials. Susan Walsh/AP hide caption
Members of the extended LeBaron family were caught in a brutal attack, Mexican officials say. Here, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador looks on as Security Minister Alfonso Durazo discusses the attack during a news conference Tuesday morning. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador via Facebook hide caption
Forensic personnel load the corpse of a man into a van, after he was executed at a shopping mall in Acapulco, Mexico, on April 24, 2018. A new report recorded more than 33,000 homicides in 2018, making it the country's deadliest on record. Francisco Robles/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Mexican navy members and federal police take part in an operation in Acapulco in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, on Tuesday to disarm local police. Francisco Robles/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Mexican journalist Javier Valdez speaks at the International Book Fair in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2016. He was killed by a gunman on Monday. Hector Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Nayarit state Attorney General Edgar Veytia was arrested on drug trafficking charges at the U.S.-Mexico border this week. Here, the Nayarit state attorney general's headquarters is seen in Tepic, Mexico. Cesar Rodriguez/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
Mexican state police stand guard in May 2015 near a shootout between authorities and suspected criminals in Michoacan. Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said Thursday that 22 people were arbitrarily killed by federal police during that raid. Refugio Ruiz/AP hide caption
A Mexican soldier stands guard next to marijuana packages in Tijuana following the discovery of a tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border in 2010. AFP/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Jose Manuel Mireles Valverde, spokesman for the Autodefensas, a militia organized against the Knights Templar mob. The Orchard hide caption