Drug Trafficking

Pichollo The Cocaine King Gets 20 Years In Prison

Benito Aguilar-Ozuna, whose known as Pichollo and has ties to the Zetas gang, is going to federal prison for almost 20 years, the United States Attorney's Office announced. Aguilar-Ozuna had earlier entered a guilty plea for conspiracy to traffic cocaine in what the feds say was a "large-scale oper ... More >>

Eric & Kim Williams: Charged With Capital Murder In Kaufman County Prosecutor Killings; They Don't Seem To Be Part Of The Cartels Rick Perry Speculated About

The weirdest episode (we hope) in the history of Kaufman County law enforcement took a major step today as a former Justice of the Peace and his wife were charged with killing the DA, his wife and another prosecutor who had helped convict him on a theft charge. Eric and Kim Williams have been charg ... More >>

Bloody Tide: How Puerto Rico Affects the U.S.

As Puerto Rico is battered by a wave of drugs and brazen murders, Houston and other continental U.S. cities feel the blowback.

Santa Muerte: Know Your Narco Saints

The religious iconography of the drug trade.

Santa Muerte: Patron Saint of the Drug War

Need help killing someone? Or cementing a drug deal? This may be the saint for you.

Cover Story: The Rise and Rise of Santa Muerte, with VIDEO

It was sometime back in the early 2000s, or maybe even the late 1990s, that I started seeing them at the late beloved Dunlavy Fiesta: in the Hispanic aisle, alongside the colorful votive candles to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Saint Jude, and the Most Powerful Hand of God, there were these stark monochrom ... More >>

Know Your Narco Saints: The Religious Iconography of the Drug Trade

Santa Muerte, the newly-popular Grim Reaper-like Mexican folk saint, and subject of this week's cover story, is not the only object of supernatural devotion in the drug trade. Far from it. In fact, she's something of a Johnny-come-lately in Mexican folk religion. For as long as there have been smug ... More >>

Monica de Guzman: Three Kilos Of Heroin In Nine Packages Of Powdered Drink Mix

Let's see, the three steps of Gatorade greatness in the G Series are 10 Prime, 2) Perform and 3) Recover. In the heretofore unknown H Series, the process also includes 4) Blissfully nodding out to Lou Reed. That's the takeaway we get, anyway, from the arrest and charges filed today against Guatema ... More >>

Isaias Gallegos a.k.a. Mickey: Coke Kingpin Gets Almost 22 Years in Federal Prison

The head of a large cocaine network has been sentenced to almost 22 years in federal prison, prosecutors announced this morning. Isaias Gallegos, also known as Mickey, is 32 and from Sugar Land and had previously entered a guilty plea for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and ... More >>

Kevin Corley's Murder-For-Hire/Drug Complaint Reads Like Quentin Tarantino Movie

Kevin Corley was one of a group of men whose arrests were announced today by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston, and let's just say the man makes for a good criminal complaint. It reads like a Quentin Tarantino rip-off and has guns, drugs and a murder for hire in which the killer promised to car ... More >>

Chicago Bears WR Sam Hurd Has a Ring...a Drug Ring!

The Stringer Bell School of Entrepreneurship.​I remember former Houston Texans (and now Washington Redskins) wide receiver David Anderson telling me a couple years ago about a program that the NFL offered players in which they could travel to prestigious universities during the off season and ... More >>

DPS: The Mexican Drug Cartels Are Coming After Texas High Schoolers

They're coming for your high schoolers.​The Texas Department of Public Safety issued a warning today to state residents that didn't sound at all alarming; it just mentioned that "the Mexican Cartels are Recruiting Texas High School Students." Yes, those innocent kids you blithely send off to ... More >>

Leslie Aikens: HPD Cop Indicted for Drug-Running, Taking Bribe

Leslie Aikens: Allegedly dealing coke​The feds unsealed an indictment today against a 19-year veteran of the Houston police force accused of drug trafficking and taking a $2,000 bribe. Leslie Aikens, 46, was arrested at the end of his shift today. He is charged with aiding and abetting the p ... More >>

"Project Delirium": Big Nationwide Drug Round-Up Results in Texas Arrests

The hammer comes down.​No, "Project Delirium" isn't the latest Anthrax album; It's a nationwide crackdown targeting alleged members of the La Familia Michoacana Drug Cartel. It's been a 20-month operation, and in the latest wave of arrests beginning this month, 221 suspects have been taken in ... More >>

Alleged McAllen Starbucks Masturbator Immortalized in Song

Jose Maravilla, celebrated in song​In the borderlands of South Texas, there has long been a tradition of immortalizing revolutionaries in song. Corridos, as these tunes are known, date back to the decades before the Mexican Revolution, and have been written in honor of people like Emiliano Zap ... More >>

Mexican Drug Cartel: U.S. Rep and Sheriff Talk Tough on Keeping Them Out of Houston

The Mexican drug cartels didn't reckon on McCaul and Garcia.​U.S. Representative Mike McCaul and Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia met today and said they are going to do whatever it takes to stop Mexican drug cartels from coming to Houston. Because we want our coke and weed from American d ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Who Loves the K2 Ban?

​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>

Luis Enrique Ramirez: Border Guard Admits Letting Coke and Aliens In

Right this way, and don't forget to tip your agent​A Border Patrol agent has admitted he waved through a car full of cocaine and helped aliens cross into the U.S. which, to be honest, is pretty clearly against the law. Luis Enrique Ramirez, 38, of Brownsville, entered a guilty plea today, say ... More >>

Richard Nutt: Sheriff's Deputy Knew Where To Get The Coke He Allegedly Sold

Photo courtesy HPDRichard Nutt, HCSO vet, charged with dealing coke​Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Richard Nutt, who we're sure has heard all the jokes he cares to about his name, has been arrested and charged with trying to sell two kilos of cocaine. Only a summary of the case is available, ... More >>

Cash Smugglers Juan Sanchez & Pals: Soaking Wet & Wearing Only Underwear Is No Way To Transport $1.6 Million

Breaking Bad: Another guy who does drug work in his underwear​More trouble for those pesky drug lords trying to  gt their cash from the marketplace in America to home in Mexico -- an employee, Juan Sanchez, just got more than seven years in a federal prison for doing their dirty work.We're su ... More >>

Cash Smuggling: Growing Problem For Mexican Gangs?

Smuggling large piles of cash ain't easy​Sure, running a drug ring is the road to riches. You bring the stuff over the borde, you get tons of money.But then you have to get that money back over the border. And as banks -- including those in Mexico -- get better about finding and reporting suspicio ... More >>

Pinalcchio

Renowned forensics experts say a Pinal County deputy's high-profile tale about getting shot after encountering drug smugglers doesn't add up

Valley Sheriffs Want To Search Southbound Cars, Too

Be careful headin' south​Be careful if you're driving south with your guns and life savings. If some sheriffs have their way, county cops could take it all away.Late last week, sheriffs from Cameron County and El Paso County announced that they would love it if deputies started inspecting every ca ... More >>

Asylum Denied

Unlike refugees from other troubled countries, only a fraction of Mexicans seeking U.S. asylum are accepted – no matter how horrible their wounds or their stories.

Seized

Inside the brutal world of America's kidnapping capital

The Killer of His Daughter's Mother

A cunning American boy becomes a Mexican cartel soldier and East L.A. executioner.

Cowboy Down

Rob Krentz's family talks about the life and death of the murdered Arizona rancher.

Badlands

From Ground Zero of the immigration crisis along the Mexican border

Border War: Don't Drift Over To The Mexico Side Of Lake, Texas Warns Fishermen

Watch out for the AK-47s on the Mexican side of Falcon Lake​You're out for a peaceful day of fishing on Falcon Lake, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, and the next thing you know you're in the middle of an intense firefight, or you're being kidnapped, or turned into a junkie by ruthless drug ... More >>

Drug Kingpin Juan Jose Quintero-Payan Extradited To Texas

Welcome to Texas, dude​The U.S. Attorney's offices of Houston and San Antonio have announced a major coup in the drug war: Mexican kingpin Juan Jose Quintero-Payan, 68, has been successfully extradited from Mexico to Texas.Quintero-Payan, of Guadajara, had fought extradition for eight years, but h ... More >>

Your Chance To Purchase A Drug Kingpin's Home!

​ Swamplot, which can navigate the real-estate webz better than us, has pictures of the Drug Kingpin House that you can buy for yourself next week.Located up north near Spring, the tasteful manse was the home of one Darren Odell Jones, currently housed in slightly less spacious digs after being co ... More >>

John Truax

Web exclusive

Graciela Limón: The River Flows North

The award-winning author explores the immigrant journey north

Why All the Mexican Narco Hate?

David Handler

Have lunch with the author of The Sour Cherry Surprise

In Defense of Michael Vick. Sort Of.

U.S. informants take part in murder and drug running in Mexico

Double Trouble

Juan Diaz just wanted his citizenship. The feds wanted a drug-running felon.

Pepper-Spraying José

A "Bubba Mexican" polices the border in Buford Gomez

Payback Time?

Dick DeGuerin beat the IRS. Now there's a bigger war over basic rights.

End Games

Director Boaz Yakin gives a Fresh twist to tales of the drug trade

Spy Games

Tom Clancy and Harrison Ford take aim at the War On Drugs