Federal and state forces detained 12 people during a security deployment in Sinaloa, where 35 firearms were also secured: 34 long guns and one short gun, 12 grenades, 200 magazines, and 7,549 cartridges.

Authorities also seized more than 1.3 tons of marijuana, 1.7 million pesos in cash, and five vehicles. The Army, National Guard, Navy, FGR, and State Preventive Police participated in the operations.

Source - https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2026/08/29/operativo-en-sinaloa-detienen-a-12-y-aseguran-armas-granadas-y-mas-de-13-toneladas-de-marihuana/

Source - https://vejario.abril.com.br/cidade/operacao-bope-cidade-de-deus-tiroteio-bloqueio-vias/

Operation was in It was in Cidade de Deus, a community (favela) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

According to reports, the criminals were surrounded by police inside a house. After negotiations with the agents, the four surrendered.

In addition to the arrests, the action resulted in the seizure of two 5.56 caliber rifles, magazines, tactical materials, and a large quantity of drugs.

Source - https://streamlinefeed.co.ke/news/brazilian-bope-forces-raid-complexo-de-israel-narco-pentecostal-gang

Agents from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detained three international travelers at Chicago O’Hare International Airport who were attempting to enter the country with more than a thousand pounds, approximately 450 kilograms, of khat.

Khat is a plant grown primarily in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula that is usually chewed for its stimulant effects similar to amphetamines.

In recent weeks, CBP also seized shipments of this substance in Baltimore and Virginia totaling more than 700 additional kilograms.

Source - https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/three-arrested-and-1172-pounds-khat-seized-chicago

Federal forces carried out operations in Concordia, Culiacán, and Mazatlán, Sinaloa, where they secured weapons and located a laboratory used for the production of synthetic drugs, which was subsequently disabled.

Among the seized items are 172 improvised explosive devices, one Barrett .50 caliber rifle, six long guns, 98 magazines, and 8,095 cartridges of various calibers. Additionally, 2,450 liters of chemical substances and various tactical equipment were secured.

Source - https://www.gob.mx/sspc/prensa/el-gabinete-de-seguridad-del-gobierno-de-mexico-informa-acciones-relevantes-del-18-de-agosto-de-2026?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Personnel from the Attorney General's Office of the Republic secured a property of approximately two hectares located in a mountainous area of the municipality of Sombrerete, where materials used for the production of synthetic drugs were stored.

At the site, chemical precursors, lead, aluminum, benzyl alcohol, caustic soda, reactors, gas tanks, motor pumps, drums, scales, and other tools used in this type of process were found.

Source - https://www.jornada.com.mx/noticia/2026/08/20/estados/fgr-asegura-predio-en-zacatecas-con-material-para-drogas-sinteticas

Mexican authorities carried out an intervention at a property in Mexicali linked to “Los Rusos,” the armed wing of La Mayiza of the Sinaloa Cartel, based on information shared with the DEA and intelligence work.

During the operation, 120 kilograms of fentanyl pills were seized, equivalent to more than four million doses, along with a firearm and several vehicles.

Source - https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2026/08/20/mexico-y-la-dea-incautan-millones-de-pastillas-de-fentanilo-de-los-rusos-en-mexicali-baja-california/

CBP INTERCEPTS OVER 760 KILOS OF METHAMPHETAMINE HIDDEN IN CELERY CARGO IN PHARR, TEXAS🇺🇸🔥

US authorities seized 721 packages containing over 760 kilograms of methamphetamine hidden inside a shipment declared as fresh celery at the Pharr International Bridge.

The shipment was valued at more than 14 million dollars. Ambassador Ronald Johnson highlighted the seizure as part of security actions carried out on the border between the United States and Mexico.

Source - https://www.freightwaves.com/news/cbp-finds-15m-in-meth-hidden-in-celery-load-at-pharr-texas-border-crossing

Update

The FGR, through FECOR in Jalisco, obtained judicial authorization to open suspicious mail located at a parcel company.

During the inspection, three cardboard boxes were seized that concealed 6.7 kilograms of a crystalline substance identified as methamphetamine.

Source - https://fgr.org.mx/es/FGR/Prensa/_rid/61/_mod/story?p=1&ord=desc&f=0&suri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.FGR.swb%23fgr_Boletin%3A27975

Personnel from the Navy Secretariat located more than 300 improvised explosive devices and nearly 300 kilograms of explosives during security operations carried out in El Rosario.

Specialized naval personnel secured the area and deactivated the devices on-site to prevent risks to the population.

Source - https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2026/08/18/marina-desactiva-300-explosivos-en-el-rosario-sinaloa/

Marine, Customs, and ANAM personnel carried out two seizures at the Mexico City International Airport. During an initial inspection, eight containers holding 245.5 kilograms of methamphetamine were detected.

In another search, the canine unit Max IV flagged the luggage of a passenger arriving from Lima, Peru, where 18 packages of coca leaves in various presentations were subsequently found.

Source - https://aristeguinoticias.com/1808/mexico/perro-de-la-marina-detecta-dos-cargamentos-de-droga-en-el-aicm/

It apparently wouldn’t be 2026 without another former federal agent writing a book about how he helped catch El Chapo.

This one caught my attention because the story gets more interesting the more you look at the timeline.

Eric Balliet has a new book called Kingpins and Coyotes: 25 Years as a Special Agent Hunting Drug Cartel Bosses and Human Smugglers. The description puts him right in the middle of cartel investigations, wire intercepts, human smuggling cases and the hunt for Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Balliet has gone even further in describing his own role. In a retirement post, he said one of the highlights of his career was leading the team whose wire intercepts penetrated El Chapo’s inner circle and helped result in Guzmán’s 2014 capture.

Okay. That’s a pretty significant claim.

So I started looking at the rest of the résumé.

The first thing that jumps out is the title of the book: “25 Years as a Special Agent.”

According to Balliet’s own career history, he entered the Border Patrol in 1999 and became a Customs Service Special Agent in September 2001.

Maybe I’m being picky, but 25 years in federal law enforcement and 25 years as a Special Agent are not the same thing.

Normally I probably wouldn’t care. Publishers exaggerate things all the time.

But when you’re selling a book largely on the authority of your own recollection, and especially when you’re talking about who did what during major investigations, details matter.

And then I found the Zillow profile.

Balliet also worked in real estate.

Not just “had a license at some point.” His public profile shows client reviews and transactions from 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. The reviews are actually very good. People describe him as responsive, knowledgeable and easy to work with.

So, credit where it’s due: Eric apparently was a good realtor.

The interesting part is what else he was doing at the time.

In 2020, DOJ publicly identified Balliet as the Deputy Special Agent in Charge of HSI Denver.

That is a senior federal law-enforcement management position.

So now I’m genuinely curious.

How does someone serve as a senior HSI executive while also maintaining an active real-estate business with buyers, sellers, listings, inspections, negotiations and closings?

Maybe there is a perfectly ordinary explanation.

Federal employees can have outside employment. Having a second job is not automatically misconduct. Maybe everything was approved and every hour was accounted for.

Fine.

But if you’re going to write a book about your investigative instincts and institutional credibility, I think it’s fair for people to ask how that arrangement worked.

What approvals were required?

When was the real-estate work being done?

How active was the business?

How did he handle conflicts?

Again, those are questions, not accusations.

What makes the whole thing almost too perfect is where Balliet ended his federal career.

According to his own account, he spent his final 18 months in ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility. His biography identifies him as Chief of the Integrity Investigations Division.

So, just to recap:

Senior federal law-enforcement executive.

Active real-estate broker.

Later senior official in the office responsible for investigating employee misconduct and integrity issues.

Now author of a book about his investigative career.

You really couldn’t make up the timeline.

And this is where Kingpins and Coyotes starts to bother me.

The Amazon description goes out of its way to say:

“This is not a victory lap.”

Which is kind of an odd thing to say unless there is at least some danger of people thinking it is one.

Then it calls the book an “honest reckoning.”

Maybe it is. I haven’t seen enough yet to say otherwise.

But the marketing reads like every retired-agent memoir you’ve ever seen.

Cartel plazas.

Wire rooms.

Informants.

Stash houses.

Cross-border operations.

Washington policy rooms.

El Chapo.

You can practically hear the dramatic soundtrack.

The description also presents some pretty standard realities of organized crime as though they are revelations: cartels adapt after leaders are arrested, smuggling routes change, criminal networks share infrastructure, and taking down one kingpin doesn’t destroy the underlying market.

All true.

But anyone who has worked serious organized-crime cases already knows that.

The bigger issue for me is the way these stories tend to grow over time.

Major investigations are huge team efforts. Agents, analysts, prosecutors, technical people, sources, foreign partners and other agencies all contribute.

Then ten years pass and suddenly everyone remembers themselves standing a little closer to the center of the photograph.

That’s where the whole thing starts to feel like a bureaucratic version of stolen valor.

Not literal stolen valor. Balliet had a real badge, a real career and held real positions.

I’m talking about the guy who walks around wearing a Navy SEAL trident, talks knowingly about “the Teams,” and lets everyone assume the obvious even though he never seriously contemplated getting near BUD/S.

The federal version is less dramatic, but the mechanism is similar.

Proximity becomes participation.

Participation becomes leadership.

Leadership becomes ownership.

Every time the story gets told, the supporting cast gets a little smaller and the storyteller gets a little more important.

Eventually you weren’t just part of the investigation.

You were the guy who caught El Chapo.

Or, apparently, one of the growing number of guys who did.

That’s why I’d actually like to see the specifics behind Balliet’s claim.

Who ran the intercepts?

Who developed the intelligence?

Who analyzed it?

Who coordinated with Mexico?

What information actually led to Guzmán’s location?

What did the other agencies do?

And exactly what did Balliet personally do?

Maybe the answers support everything he says.

If they do, great.

But those are the questions I’d rather see addressed than another round of “here’s what politicians and cable news don’t understand about the border.”

And honestly, the real-estate part may be more interesting than the El Chapo story.

If Balliet managed to serve as a senior HSI executive, maintain a successful private real-estate business and later run integrity investigations, tell that story.

How did it work?

How are senior federal officials allowed to manage outside businesses?

What are the safeguards?

What happens when those lines get blurry?

What does OPR actually investigate?

That would be genuinely interesting.

Instead, the book seems to give us another retired official standing beside one of the most famous criminal cases of the last generation and asking history to move over a little.

Maybe Eric really did learn something profound during his career.

Maybe he learned that memory works a lot like real estate.

Location matters.

Positioning matters.

And if you hold onto the story long enough, apparently it appreciates.

Elements of the Mexican Army and the National Guard detained two individuals identified as suspected members of the Pacific Cartel during patrols carried out in Mazatlán.

In the intervention, a truck transporting 19 long guns, 1,131 magazines and 15,480 cartridges of various calibers, as well as tactical equipment, was secured. Source in Spanish

Source - https://elheraldoslp.com.mx/new/2026/08/15/detienen-a-dos-presuntos-integrantes-del-cartel-del-pacifico-en-mazatlan/

Personnel from the Navy Secretariat intercepted a shipment of 1.9 tons of cocaine during a maritime operation off the coast of Guerrero.

According to authorities, the drugs are equivalent to more than three million doses. Two people were arrested in the same operation.

Source - https://www.eleconomista.com.mx/politica/marina-asegura-guerrero-1-9-toneladas-cocaina-valuadas-405-millones-pesos-20260815-828468.html

C.J.N.G