DNA testing confirmed that three US citizens were among the four bodies found shot dead near the Texas border more than two weeks after they went missing on a visit to Mexico.

Eighteen Mexicans caught in Nicaragua posing as journalists in an attempt to smuggle US$9.2m in drug money have been sent back to their home country.

The remnants of Hurricane Ingrid and Tropical Storm Manuel drenched Mexico with torrential rains yesterday, flooding towns and cities and setting off landslides in a national emergency that caused at least 34 deaths.

A top leader of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel has been captured in a military operation near the US border with Texas, the second major capture since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office last December.

Senior Mexican drug cartel leader Heriberto Lazcano has apparently been killed in a fight with marines in the northern border state of Coahuila, the navy said.

A man believed to be the leader of the Gulf drug cartel, which controls some of the most valuable and violently contested smuggling routes along the US border, was arrested by Mexican marines and paraded before the public.

A man believed to be the leader of the Gulf drug cartel, which controls some of the most valuable and violently contested smuggling routes along the US border, has been arrested by Mexican marines, the navy said.

A prison riot in northern Mexico left about 20 people dead today.

Thirty-one prisoners have been killed in a fight among inmates armed with makeshift knives and clubs in a jail in northern Mexico, authorities say.

Five gunmen sprayed three passenger buses with bullets in Mexico’s Gulf coast state of Veracruz, killing seven passengers before being chased down and shot dead by soldiers.

Mexican marines have captured a founding member of the brutal Zetas drug cartel, the navy announced.

Police found a woman’s decapitated body in a Mexican border city, alongside a hand-written sign saying she was killed in retaliation for her postings on a social networking site.

Mexico’s federal security spokesman today rejected a state prosecutor’s call for drug cartels to join in some kind of truce, saying the gangs must be arrested and disbanded instead.

THE number of murder victims unearthed in mass graves in northern Mexico this month has risen to 279, making it easily the worst discovery of its kind since the government began a campaign against drug cartels.

MEXICAN investigators have found a total of 116 bodies in pits near the US border, 28 more than previously reported, Attorney General Marisela Morales revealed.

MEXICAN drug gangs branching out into new criminal activity are earning a steady stream of cash from the mass kidnapping of migrants, making the already arduous journey to the United States even more lethal.

AT least 59 bodies have been found on a ranch in Mexico’s northern state of Tamaulipas on the US border, coinciding with massive protests against drug violence the government has failed to stem.

Fifty-nine bodies were found buried in a series of pits in the northern Mexico state of Tamaulipas, near the site where suspected drug gang members massacred 72 migrants last summer, officials said.

Tropical Storm Karl dumped heavy rains on the Yucatan Peninsula today as it moved toward the Gulf of Mexico, where it is expected to pick up steam and become a hurricane threatening Mexico’s central coast by the weekend.

Hooded gunmen killed the mayor of a small town in the northern Mexico state of San Luis Potosi, and prosecutors announced the arrest of seven suspects in the massacre of 72 migrants in August.

AT least 25 suspected drug gang members were killed in an army raid in rural northeastern Mexico, the army said in a press release.

ALTHOUGH we should learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of others, we persist in following the failed tactics of the US in relation to drugs. Our drug problems, which began in Dublin, have gradually spread throughout the country.

Soldiers killed 25 suspected cartel members in a raid and gun battle near the US border that has seen a surge in drug gang violence.

MEXICAN authorities yesterday began identifying 72 suspected migrants believed murdered for refusing to become hitmen for a drug cartel.

A SURVIVOR has told police that 72 people found dead at a ranch near the Mexican border with Texas were migrants kidnapped by an armed group, a federal official has said.

SOLDIERS killed a top leader of the Sinaloa cartel in a raid on his posh hideout, dealing the biggest blow yet to Mexico’s most powerful drug gang since President Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against organised crime in 2006.

The sprawling remains of Hurricane Alex has drenched much of northern Mexico, paralysing the major city of Monterrey.

Hurricane Alex ripped off roofs, flooded streets and forced thousands of people to flee coastal fishing villages today as it pushed into northern Mexico after making landfall as a powerful Category 2 storm.

Gunmen assassinated the front-running candidate for governor of a Mexican border state in what President Felipe Calderon called an attempt by drug gangs to sway local and state elections this weekend.

Tropical Storm Alex is gaining strength as it swirls across the Gulf of Mexico today on a path towards Mexico’s north-eastern coast.

At least 30 gunmen burst into a drug rehabilitation centre in a Mexican border state capital and opened fire, killing 19 men and wounding four people.

A drugs-war gun battle erupted on the main coast boulevard in the heart of Mexico’s tourist mecca Acapulco, killing six people, including an eight-year-old girl and her mother.

AT least 18 gunmen have been killed in clashes after drug gangs tried to blockade army bases in northern Mexico, military officials said yesterday.

At least 18 gunmen have been killed in clashes after drug gangs tried to blockade army bases in northern Mexico, military officials said today.

A weakened Hurricane Emily triggered flooding outside Mexico’s third-largest city last night after demolishing homes, toppling trees and sparking thousands of evacuations on the northern Gulf Coast.

Thousands fled as the outer edge of Hurricane Emily lashed coastal areas around the Texas-Mexico border and its already powerful centre continued to strengthen just offshore.

Police want to question a Mexican man whose wife and three American children were shot execution-style and dumped in a cornfield outside Mexico’s second-largest city.