http://projects.latimes.com/mexico-drug-war/ The latest photos and video about the drug war in Mexico published by the Los Angeles Times. en-us http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/img/mex.painter.TN.jpg http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/img/mex.painter.TN.jpg Jose Espinoza paints murals on the tombs of fallen narcotics traffickers and in the mansions of the nouveaux riche in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, home to a powerful drug cartel. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-09/49305313-16183937.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-09/49305313-16183937.jpg Forensic vehicles wait outside the Life Annex drug rehabilitation center in Ciudad Juarez where, according to local media, at least 10 people were killed after unidentified gunmen stormed the place early Wednesday. Guillermo Arias 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-09/49304809-16182118.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-09/49304809-16182118.jpg Emergency personnel transfer a man wounded in a deadly attack on a drug treatment center in Ciudad Juarez. Hooded gunmen burst into the center, gathered together those inside and lined them up before opening fire with semiautomatic weapons. When the shooting was over, 18 people were dead. Luis Hinojos 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-09/49305623-16185516.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-09/49305623-16185516.jpg A police officer in Calexico keeps an eye on border crossers from Mexicali, Mexico. The town is considered so safe that top law enforcement officials from Tijuana raise their families here, and are seen visiting restaurants and movie theaters without the phalanx of bodyguards that usually follows them everywhere else. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/miscfiles/VancouverVideoImage.TN.jpg http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/miscfiles/VancouverVideoImage.TN.jpg The recent crackdown on drug cartels in Mexico has squeezed the profits margin for cocaine north of the U.S. border, effectively opening a new front in Mexico’s calamitous drug wars. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/img/narco_small.jpg http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/img/narco_small.jpg Journalists in Mexico went through a five-day course outside of Mexico City to help them cover Mexico's narco-trafficking and organized-crime problems. Deborah Bonello 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-05/46656488-01133330.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-05/46656488-01133330.jpg In Tijuana, the caskets of six police officers and an auxiliary officer are placed for a memorial service in the city hall plaza. The officers were killed late Monday within an hour in a series of brazen assaults, ambushed by masked gunmen apparently working for a criminal gang. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-05/46656490-01134026.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-05/46656490-01134026.jpg Friends and relatives stand near the caskets of seven police officers slain by gunmen the night of April 27, 2009. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-05/46916297-14135017.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-05/46916297-14135017.jpg The wife of Tijuan police officer Alejandro Figueroa Medrano runs her fingers across his name on a banner that covers his casket. Medrano and six other police officers were killed in a series of brazen assaults, ambushed by masked gunmen apparently working for a criminal gang. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-04/46640728-30192010.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-04/46640728-30192010.jpg Outside a police station in the Colonia Libertad neighborhood of Tijuana, a boy peers into a police pickup damaged by gunfire. One auxiliary policeman was slain and another wounded in the attack, one of a number across the city the night before by masked gunmen that left a total of seven officers dead, and two wounded. An additional officer was injured in an earlier assault. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-04/46640812-30192721.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-04/46640812-30192721.jpg A woman who did not want her identity revealed shows a digital camera image of the carnage she witnessed the night before. The four Tijuana police officers killed outside the convenience store were reportedly attacked by heavily armed masked gunmen. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-05/46858057-11214726.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-05/46858057-11214726.jpg A Border Patrol agent leaps a barbed-wire fence to show where he found a clear footprint along an old railroad route parallel to Highway 9 near Rodeo, N.M. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-05/46858055-11215750.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-05/46858055-11215750.jpg Jose Portillo, night supervisor at the Lordsburg Border Patrol station, looks for footprints along a fence line in the Animas Valley, N.M. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/miscfiles/trackers.sm.jpg http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/miscfiles/trackers.sm.jpg New fencing and high-tech devices make it difficult for drug traffickers to cross the border. So smugglers hoist packs and take to the desert on foot. Agents use century-old tracking skills to follow. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-05/46858056-11215613.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-05/46858056-11215613.jpg A full moon rises behind a U.S. Border Patrol radio frequency monitoring vehicle near Rodeo, N.M. Drug smugglers are know to use two-way communications devices as they pass through the area. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/includes/soundslides/border_flat/imgsMisc/tracker.thumb.sm.jpg http://www.latimes.com/includes/soundslides/border_flat/imgsMisc/tracker.thumb.sm.jpg Border agents in New Mexico rely on tracking skills borrowed from Native Americans to intercept drug smugglers who cross the border on foot. It's a 75-mile walk to a drop point on Interstate 10. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-04/46468594-23121539.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-04/46468594-23121539.jpg "The good people far, far outweigh the bad people," says Rio Grande City's mayor, Ruben Villareal. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/miscfiles/ktlaThumb.jpg http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/miscfiles/ktlaThumb.jpg Fifty arrests in California and elsewhere are the latest among 730 targeting the Sinaloa cartel in a 21-month investigation. Elizabeth Espinosa 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-04/46469162-23122511.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-04/46469162-23122511.jpg Since the Rio Grande River became an international border in 1848, contraband has poured across the water, into and through Starr County, Texas. Smuggling is part of the local landscape. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/includes/soundslides/Juarez_Final/imgsMisc/juarez13_thumb.jpg http://www.latimes.com/includes/soundslides/Juarez_Final/imgsMisc/juarez13_thumb.jpg Drug violence puts Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on edge. In a harrowing three-day visit, a reporter and photographer find the social fabric badly frayed in Ciudad Juarez, a border city that has suffered the worst of the drug-related violence in Mexico. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/includes/soundslides/Tijuana_Final/imgsMisc/tijuana11_thumb.jpg http://www.latimes.com/includes/soundslides/Tijuana_Final/imgsMisc/tijuana11_thumb.jpg Despite a military offensive, Tijuana drug violence is unabated. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/includes/soundslides/Culiacan_Final/imgsMisc/culiacan04_thumb.jpg http://www.latimes.com/includes/soundslides/Culiacan_Final/imgsMisc/culiacan04_thumb.jpg Five federal and state police agents are killed in an ambush in Culiacan as drug gangs try to fight off a government crackdown. 'Narcos' have made their way into government, business and culture in this Pacific state, where kids want to grow up to be traffickers. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/44966316-09101751.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/44966316-09101751.jpg Seen from inside a Baja State government office, Fernando Ocegueda presses his hands on an enlarged photograph of his 23-year-old son. Ocegueda investigated his son's kidnapping on his own. Santiago Meza Lopez, known as El Pozolero (the Stew Maker), says he stuffed bodies into barrels of lye for drug cartels. He may be a good source of information about missing loved ones. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/44918564-06174333.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/44918564-06174333.jpg Soldiers pay tribute to the late retired-General Mauro Enrique Tello, who was one of three military men shot dead on a road between the southeastern beach resort of Cancun and the city of Merida. Marte Rebollar 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/44926048-06173622.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/44926048-06173622.jpg Santiago Meza Lopez, 45, center, is escorted by Mexican soldiers and Federal police agents after his arrest on the outskirts of Tijuana. The suspected hit man who allegedly dumped more than 300 bodies in vats of lye at the behest of top Tijuana crime boss, Teodoro Garcia Simental, was arrested near Ensenada, according to the Mexican military. Garcia Simental, nicknamed El Teo, narrowly escaped during the raid. Military authorities said Meza admitted being Garcia's body disposal expert, nicknamed "El Pozolero del Teo" -- roughly translated: Teo's soup maker. Guillermo Arias 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/includes/soundslides/Columbus_Final/imgsMisc/Columbus08_thumb.jpg http://www.latimes.com/includes/soundslides/Columbus_Final/imgsMisc/Columbus08_thumb.jpg A quaint but quirky border town in New Mexico casts a wary glance at its neighbor over the border, fretting over whether drug-related violence will cross over to its streets. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45150012-19113612.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45150012-19113612.jpg Javier Lozano is the judge in Columbus , N.M. Less than three miles south, in the once-quaint Mexican town of Palomas, a drug war is being waged. “I tell people: Please don’t get too concerned about your safety. They don’t care about you. The only thing that can happen is to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Lozano said. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45151426-19120057.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45151426-19120057.jpg The town of Columbus, N.M., sleeps beneath a starry sky. The town's mayor, Eddie Espinoza, is taking a lot of criticism for firing police chiefs and officers, leaving the border town without a single cop. Seventy-one residents signed a petition demanding a return of the police force. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45030295-12114622.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45030295-12114622.jpg One of five kidnapping suspects shows signs of fatigue in the early morning hours as he waits to be interviewed by detectives at the Phoenix police station. Robert Gauthier 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45029467-12110626.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45029467-12110626.jpg A suspect in the kidnapping of Juan Francisco Perez-Torres is held in a police car as Phoenix detectives search for clues to Perez-Torres' location. The suspect was one of two men who fled from a pickup truck after a high-speed pursuit by police. Robert Gauthier 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45029460-12111518.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45029460-12111518.jpg A gun lies in the driveway of a Phoenix home where a suspect in a kidnapping case had fled police. Robert Gauthier 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45029459-12112213.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45029459-12112213.jpg The five suspects arrested in the abduction-for-ransom case are seen in their interrogation rooms on video monitors at a Phoenix police station. Robert Gauthier 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45029458-12112739.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45029458-12112739.jpg Juan Francisco Perez-Torres sits in the back of a police vehicle after he was rescued from his abductors. He denied smuggling drugs, as suspects in the case had alleged. Fixing and selling used cars was how he made his money, he told police. No detective believed him. Robert Gauthier 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45030289-12115307.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45030289-12115307.jpg Phoenix Police Det. Gina Garcia helps suspect Nestor Partida Morales to his feet after an operation to rescue Juan Francisco Perez-Torres, whose ransom was $150,000 and 50 pounds of marijuana. Robert Gauthier 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-12/43698777-02203207.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-12/43698777-02203207.jpg Tijuana Mayor Jorge Ramos, center, attends the swearing in ceremony of army Lt. Col. Julian Leyzaola, left and Capt. Gustavo Huerta. Leyzaola replaces Secretary of Public Security Alberto Capella Ibarra who was removed from his post Monday evening after a year marked by upheaval in the police ranks and increasing violence. Guillermo Arias 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-12/43698788-02202435.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-12/43698788-02202435.jpg A Santa Muerte, or Grim Reaper, pendant is displayed at a press conference along with guns and ammunition magazines seized in Tijuana. According to Mexican army authorities, they arrested several men who may have been involved in the past three days of violence that left at least 38 people dead. Guillermo Arias 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-12/43677508-01145115.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-12/43677508-01145115.jpg Police agents inspect the site where several alleged drug traffickers died in a clash between drug gangs in Santa Ana Huista, Guatemala. According to police, Mexican and Guatemalan drug traffickers arguing about a horse race in a rural border town began a series of gun battles that left 17 people dead. Rodolfo Espinoza 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-12/43680719-01191945.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-12/43680719-01191945.jpg A soldier secures the perimeter of a crime scene where nine decapitated bodies were found in Tijuana. At least 38 people were killed over the weekend in Tijuana. Guillermo Arias 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43610862-26171633.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43610862-26171633.jpg Police officers stand next to seven bodies found near a school soccer field in Ciudad Juarez. The killers left behind banners allegedly signed by a Mexican drug gang. None None 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45030983-12133252.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45030983-12133252.jpg Members of a unit of the Mexican federal police load their gear onto a jet at the Culiacan airport. They are being replaced by a fresh unit flown in earlier on the same plane, two days after five officers were gunned down. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549075-22210846.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549075-22210846.jpg Relatives of one of five slain state and federal policemen weep near the truck the officers were in when they were ambushed by gunmen in Culiacan. More than 4,000 people have died in Mexico's drug war in 2008. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45031011-12123215.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45031011-12123215.jpg Mexican federal police officers guard the scene of the ambush in Culiacan that left five police officers dead. Drug-related violence killed more than 5,000 people in Mexico in 2008. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45030975-12134215.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45030975-12134215.jpg Weapons lie in the bed of a truck alongside the bodies of two plainclothes police officers slain in November violence. Shootings, even of police officers, are hardly investigated. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45032700-12142118.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45032700-12142118.jpg Relatives of one of five slain state and federal policemen weep near the truck the officers were in when they were ambushed by gunmen in Culiacan. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45030994-12165807.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45030994-12165807.jpg Artist Jose Espinosa Moraila, 50, paints the ceiling of a mausoleum. In the background is a photo of the 32-year-old man interred in the crypt in the Culiacan "narco-cemetery." Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45030984-12133022.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45030984-12133022.jpg A man pays homage to a statue of folk hero Jesus Malverde, the "narco-saint" to Sinaloa's drug traffickers. The shrine in Culiacan celebrates the bandit who was said to have given to the poor before being killed by authorities in 1909. On this night, another man hoped that a prayer and donation would insure that his shipment of illegal drugs would make it to the United States Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45030993-12170531.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2009-02/45030993-12170531.jpg At day's end, bell towers and crosses form the skyline of Culiacan's most notorious "narco-cemetery." Custom mausoleums that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars mark where a new generation of drug lords now rest. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43610894-26173519.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43610894-26173519.jpg A man lies dead after a mid-November shootout in Tijuana. According to police, nine men were shot dead in several shootings throughout the city. Guillermo Arias 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43502281-20134651.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43502281-20134651.jpg State policemen inspect the area outside a prison in Culiacan, Mexico, where two of their colleagues are believed to have been killed by assassins. None None 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43484136-19172559.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43484136-19172559.jpg Horses available for rent to tourists stand on the sand in front of the Rosarito Beach Hotel in early November. Their owner said he had had only two customers that day and that this has been his slowest summer in 30 years. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43484135-19175147.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43484135-19175147.jpg Rosarito Beach's main drag, Benito Juarez Boulevard -- the scene of shootings -- is all lighted up but nearly deserted in early November. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43484773-19184128.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43484773-19184128.jpg An altar erected in the northern city of Monterrey to mark the Day of the Dead honors Mexican police officers killed in the fight against organized crime. Juan Cedillo 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43572780-24120849.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43572780-24120849.jpg A photograph released in Mexico City by the Ministry of Public Security shows Eduardo Arellano Felix, considered to be the No. 2 leader in the notorious Arellano Felix brothers cartel. He was arrested after a shootout in Tijuana near the U.S. border. None None 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43485624-19193154.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43485624-19193154.jpg An officer takes Jesus Zambada Garcia, a leader in the Sinaloa drug cartel, to a news conference. Zambada was arrested along with 15 other Sinaloa cartel members after a shootout in Mexico City. Alexandre Meneghini 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43613461-26181826.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43613461-26181826.jpg A police officer patrols a home in Mexico City where more than a dozen members of an alleged drug-trafficking ring were arrested in October. Police seized weapons, vehicles and zoo animals at the upscale home. Marco Ugarte 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43613460-26180833.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43613460-26180833.jpg A police officer stands guard beside a jaguar, one of seven exotic animals found in the Oct. 18 raid of a home in Mexico City. Marco Ugarte 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43507915-20162755.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43507915-20162755.jpg A panther yawns from behind a fence in the upscale home, an alleged haven for drug traffickers, in the Desierto de los Leones neighborhood of Mexico City. Marco Ugarte 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549089-22213123.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549089-22213123.jpg Members of an honor guard load the coffin of a Mexican soldier into a hearse at the Morelos army base in Tijuana. The soldier was killed the night before in a shootout with drug suspects in Tijuana. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43589516-26114219.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43589516-26114219.jpg Razor wire fortifies the high concrete perimeter of Secondary School 25 in Tijuana. When a house near the school was the scene of gory drug violence, students found an open door and went through the house. When the children returned to school for afternoon classes, teachers had trouble getting their attention: They were comparing their cellphone pictures of the carnage. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43589514-26114424.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43589514-26114424.jpg A simple shrine marks the site where two teenage cousins were shot and killed in mid-October as they sat talking on the curb outside their home in Tijuana. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43589526-26115738.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43589526-26115738.jpg Nine-year-old Arturo looks into the open coffin of his late brother, 19-year-old Felipe Alejandro Prado, who was slain along with Isabel Guzman Morales and Victor Corona Morales. Friends suggested that Prado was a drug dealer who fearlessly roamed his Tijuana neighborhood’s dirt streets. An 11-year-old mourner spoke in admiration of the dead teen: “When I grow up I want to be a narco and get all the women and the money,” he said. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43589517-26120002.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43589517-26120002.jpg In mid-October, a teenager from a nearby school sprints through the bloodstained courtyard of a house in Tijuana where a Mexican soldier was killed during a shootout the night before. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43322440-21142052.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43322440-21142052.jpg A boy covers his face as students stream through a house where soldiers and suspected drug traffickers battled in Tijuana. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549079-22210243.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549079-22210243.jpg Mexican soldiers flank a suspect behind a table of weapons confiscated after an October shootout in Tijuana. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43535743-21181857.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43535743-21181857.jpg During an all-night wake, adults embrace and children peer in the open coffin of 14-year-old Isabel Guzman Morales. Isabel and her cousin Victor were gunned down by drive-by killers who were targeting a rival drug dealer. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43589513-26115409.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43589513-26115409.jpg Outside the Tijuana morgue, a mortician from a funeral home across the street waits. In the month of October, drug-related violence has left nearly 150 dead. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549258-22200403.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549258-22200403.jpg Mourners fill the streets of the resort town of Ixtapan de la Sal at the October funeral of Mayor Salvador Vergara Cruz, killed by hooded assassins while he and others were driving home. Saul Lopez 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549261-22202221.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549261-22202221.jpg Suspects accused of taking part in the September slayings of two Tijuana policemen are held at a police station after being presented to the press. Guillermo Arias 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549166-22203317.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549166-22203317.jpg A sign on a barrel suspected of containing human remains in Tijuana says that this is what happens to those who associate with "the Engineer," the leader of the Arellano Felix drug cartel. Guillermo Arias 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43476899-19171127.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43476899-19171127.jpg Oscar Reynoso was found by police in a home in suburban Atlanta. Authorities say cartel members had chained and tortured Reynoso over a $300,000 drug debt. None None 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43329122-12193802.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43329122-12193802.jpg In late September, investigators inspect bodies deposited near a Tijuana school. Residents blocked off streets to shield children from the grisly scene while waiting on police to arrive. Four other apparent victims of drug violence were found elsewhere in the city. Said Betanzos 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-12/43680170-01183057.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-12/43680170-01183057.jpg Carmen Serrano, wife of slain Mexican policeman Raul Barba, grieves over his coffin during a ceremonyin Tijuana. Barba and fellow officer Christian Ruiz were killed on Sept. 26 in one of three attacks against Tijuana's police department. Guillermo Arias 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-12/43680753-01192847.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-12/43680753-01192847.jpg Photos of two Mexican policemen killed in recent attacks, Raul Barba, above left, and Christian Ruiz, hang next to mugshots of the murder suspects in Tijuana. Guillermo Arias 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43502282-20141921.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43502282-20141921.jpg A member of the Mexican army guards $26.2 million during a September press conference in Mexico City. The money was seized from a house in northwestern Sinaloa state in the second-largest cash haul in the country's history, according to a defense ministry official. None None 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43571972-24100415.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43571972-24100415.jpg A soldier stands at one of the sites in Morelia where a September explosion killed seven people. Eduardo Verdugo 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43571968-24102435.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43571968-24102435.jpg Soldiers ride on pickup trucks as they patrol the streets of Morelia. Seven died and 108 were injured as two explosions ripped through crowds gathered in Morelia on Sept. 15. None None 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549262-26170335.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549262-26170335.jpg Crews tend to victims of explosions at a Sept. 15 celebration in Morelia, in Mexico's Michoacan state. Thousands of people were gathered in the center of Morelia, the state capital, the day before Mexico's Independence Day when the explosions went off in front of the city's national palace. None None 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549268-22191612.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549268-22191612.jpg A police officer guards the area of La Marquesa park, about 30 miles from Mexico City, where the bodies of 24 men were found in mid-September. The dead ranged in age from 20 to 35. All had been shot in the head, the attorney general's office said. Dario Dario Lopez-MIlls 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/img/sm-thumb-tunnel.jpg http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/img/sm-thumb-tunnel.jpg Mexican authorities in September discovered a partially completed drug tunnel that started in a small Mexicali home and was destined for the California city of Calexico. The well-designed underground passage had lighting, ventilation and a rail-and-cart system that was intended to ferry drugs across the border. Richard Marosi 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43613668-26182548.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43613668-26182548.jpg In August, thousands rally in the northern city of Monterrey, once among Mexico's safest, to protest drug-related violence, including killings of police officers and rampant kidnappings. Gina Ferazzi 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549255-22202817.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549255-22202817.jpg A man said to have been deported by the United States 12 years ago gets a shot of heroin from another man in Mexico's Tijuana River basin. Guillermo Arias 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-12/43679768-01181739.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-12/43679768-01181739.jpg Policemen at a mall in the resort of Mazatlan where gunmen, who had killed a police official, stormed a restaurant. The men fled, leaving patrons unharmed. Eduardo Resendiz 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549152-22204806.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549152-22204806.jpg Members of the group Los Linces Boyz (the Wildcat Boys) joke around with the stage crew before they perform at the Baby Rock club in Tijuana. Nightclub owners have asked bands to tone down the narco-ballads, music that chronicles the exploits of drug traffickers. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43502348-20145351.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43502348-20145351.jpg Authorities investigate slayings at a Sinaloa auto repair shop. Fleeing gunmen traded fire with police, who gave chase in a busy commercial area. Sinaloa state is notorious for drug-related violence. None None 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43532840-21151654.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43532840-21151654.jpg A relative of a girl caught in crossfire between rival drug gangs in Mexico touches her coffin during the burial ceremony in June at a cemetery in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez. Luis Torres 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/img/sm-thumb-guard.jpg http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/img/sm-thumb-guard.jpg Fernando Rodriguez, a jewelry store security guard, was a poor man without much education but with a lot of heart. He was terrified of his job. Then one day his store became a battle field in Mexico's drug war. We went searching for the world of this forgotten man. Video by Sam Quinones / Los Angeles Sam Quinones 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43508323-21171518.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43508323-21171518.jpg Law enforcement agents investigate the site of a March shooting in Chihuahua, Mexico, in which seven people died. None None 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43322446-12190121.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43322446-12190121.jpg A "Welcome to Tijuana" sign hangs over Avenida Revolucion, but lately few have been returning the city's embrace. "We never imagined that tourists would stop coming," said Clark Alfaro of the Binational Center for Human Rights. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549267-22194316.jpg http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2008-11/43549267-22194316.jpg A federal police convoy makes its way through Tijuana in February. President Felipe Calderon has supported his public safety chief's efforts by dispatching 40,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police officers to drug-smuggling hot spots nationwide. Don Bartletti 2008 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/img/sm-thumb-security.jpg http://www.latimes.com/includes/mexico/img/sm-thumb-security.jpg On the busy afternoon of March 14, 2007, three gunmen run into a jewelry store in downtown Monterrey, Mexico. Twenty-three seconds later, they leave behind four dead, including a police commandant, who was their likely target. They don't touch the jewelry, the cash register or the surveillance cameras that record the event. They've never been caught. This is the video footage of what happened. Caution: extremely violent content. security camera 2008 Los Angeles Times