Ioan Grillo on Muck Rack

Ioan Grillo

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Mexico
As seen in: Apple Podcasts, O Globo, The New York Times, The New York Times en Español, Business Insider, Business Insider Singapore, HuffPost, The Guardian, The Independent (UK), TIME and
Journalist based in Mexico, focused on crime, drugs + gangster politics. Director of CrashOut Media, author of El Narco trilogy. Time, NYT, HBO+ Still doing it.
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Articles by Ioan Grillo

Un Mundial de esperanzas, sueños (y avaricia)

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| Info Cajeme Verified
La imagen más conmovedora del Mundial de 2026 hasta el momento fue la de los aficionados suecos caminando con sus camisetas amarillas brillantes hacia el partido contra Túnez en Monterrey, pasando junto a la madre de un hijo desaparecido que protestaba. Varios aficionados suecos, hombres y mujeres, jóvenes y mayores, se detuvieron y la abrazaron.
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Un Mundial de esperanzas, sueños (y avaricia)

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. La imagen más conmovedora del Mundial de 2026 hasta el momento fue la de los aficionados suecos caminando con sus camisetas amarillas brillantes hacia el partido contra Túnez en Monterrey, pasando junto a la madre de un hijo desaparecido que protestaba. Varios aficionados suecos, hombres y mujeres, jóvenes y mayores, se detuvieron y la abrazaron.
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A World Cup of Hopes, Dreams (and Money Grabbing)

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
The most touching image of the 2026 World Cup so far was of Swedish fans walking in their bright yellow team shirts to their game against Tunisia in Monterrey and passing the mother of a disappeared son protesting. Various Swedish fans, men and women, young and old, stopped and hugged her. I’ve interviewed many of the mothers and fathers of the more than 100,000 missing in Mexico (many who were dragged away by cartel gunmen) and you feel them carry a devastating pain.
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Can Cuba resist America? The people are hungry and desperate Original

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| UnHerd Verified
'This is the worst crisis since the Revolution.' (Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty) “This is the worst crisis since the Revolution,” says Alvaro Miranda, 57, a history teacher standing on the sun-soaked streets of Old Havana between crumbling white buildings. His face looks gaunt and malnourished, his eyes sunken. “I am eating one meal a day with whatever we can get. I let my children have most the food.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. Las carpas bloquean una importante calle comercial en el centro histórico de la Ciudad de México, junto a una barricada metálica y una fila de policías resguardados bajo lonas de plástico para protegerse de la lluvia torrencial.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
Tents clog a key shopping street in the historic center of Mexico City, butting up to a metal barricade and a line of police officers snuggling under plastic sheets to shelter from punishing rain. Close by, school teachers fry pork tacos under a tarp, after being pushed out of the central Zocalo square last month so the government can build a fan fest zone for the kick off of the World Cup on Thursday.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. Me entusiasma presentarles a Stephen Woodman, nuevo colaborador de CrashOut, un compatriota británico que vive en Guadalajara desde 2012 y que está en una posición ideal para escribir este revelador informe sobre las alegrías y las penas de la capital del mariachi a medida que nos acercamos al Mundial.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
I’m stoked to introduce new CrashOut contributor Stephen Woodman, a fellow Brit who has been living in Guadalajara since 2012 and is perfectly placed to write this revealing report on the joys and pains of the capital of mariachi as we head into the World Cup.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
Ioan Grillo y Juan Alberto Cedillo To read the original story in English, click here. Guadalajara, centro cultural de México y sede de cuatro partidos del Mundial con selecciones como España, Colombia y Uruguay, es hogar del temido Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación, que es activo en el narcotráfico y otras actividades delictivas en todo el hemisferio.
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Cartels To Their Operatives: "Don't Mess With The World Cup"

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
Ioan Grillo and Juan Alberto Cedillo Para leer en español click aquí. Mexico’s cultural center of Guadalajara, which will host four World Cup games with teams including Spain, Colombia and Uruguay, is home to the fearsome Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which runs narco trafficking and other rackets across the hemisphere.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. En los 12 meses que terminaron en junio de 2023, Estados Unidos registró su mayor número de muertes por sobredosis, con 111.466 víctimas reportadas y estimaciones de incluso más. Este podría ser el punto álgido de la crisis de drogas más letal de la historia mundial, aunque no contamos con cifras fiables sobre las muertes por sobredosis en China durante las Guerras del Opio.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
In the 12 months ending June 2023, the United States recorded its highest ever number of overdose deaths with 111,466 casualties reported and estimates of even more. This might be the peak of the most lethal drug crisis in world history, although we don’t have solid numbers for overdose deaths in China at the time of the Opium Wars. Since the year 2000, more than 1.3 million Americans have died of OD’s, about as many as the combined U.S. military deaths in all wars since independence.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. Al amanecer de hoy, los automovilistas que circulaban por la carretera a Escuinapa, Sinaloa, presenciaron la escalofriante imagen de una cabeza humana clavada en un puente junto a una narcomanta con un mensaje amenazante. Poco después, se difundió un video macabro en grupos de WhatsApp de Sinaloa que mostraba una pila de cadáveres y cinco cabezas cercenadas alineadas en el suelo.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
At dawn this morning, motorists on the road to Escuinapa, Sinaloa, saw the chilling sight of a human head stuck on a bridge along with a blanket, or narco manta, with a threatening message. Soon after, a gruesome video was sent around Sinaloa WhatsApp groups showing a pile of corpses and five severed heads in a row on the dirt.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
The fast moving story has been updated throughout. To read the lastest version in English, click here. A finales de marzo, una camioneta que salía del aeropuerto AIFA, en las afueras de la Ciudad de México, explotó en la carretera, cruzó varios carriles y se estrelló, causando la muerte de sus dos ocupantes.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
In late March, a pick up truck leaving the AIFA airport on the outskirts of Mexico City exploded on the highway, rolled across multiple lanes of traffic and crashed, leaving the two occupants dead. The driver and passenger were both from Sinaloa, the latter being identified as Francisco Beltrán, alias ‘El Payín,’ alleged to be a powerful member of the Sinaloa Cartel and lieutenant of a kingpin called El Meño.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. Por Juan Alberto Cedillo e Ioan Grillo La mañana del 17 de septiembre de 1973, Eugenio Garza Sada, uno de los empresarios más importantes de México, se dirigía a su trabajo en Monterrey en un Ford Galaxie negro cuando una camioneta repleta de hombres armados llegó.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
By Juan Alberto Cedillo and Ioan Grillo On the morning of Sept. 17, 1973, one of Mexico’s top businessmen, Eugenio Garza Sada, was riding to work in Monterrey in a black Ford Galaxie when a pick-up packed with gunmen cut in. The assailants were in a communist guerrilla group who wanted to kidnap Garza for ransom; Garza, then 81, ran an empire of breweries and factories and founded the prestigious Tec de Monterrey university.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
By Juan Alberto Cedillo and Ioan Grillo On the morning of Sept. 17, 1973, one of Mexico’s top businessmen, Eugenio Garza Sada, was riding to work in Monterrey in a black Ford Galaxie when a pick-up packed with gunmen cut in. The assailants were in a communist guerrilla group who wanted to kidnap Garza for ransom; Garza, then 81, ran an empire of breweries and factories and founded the prestigious Tec de Monterrey university.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. Como ocurre con muchos políticos, existe una brecha entre lo que dice la presidenta mexicana Claudia Sheinbaum y lo que hace, especialmente en lo que respecta a la relación con Estados Unidos. En sus ruedas de prensa matutinas, dirigidas al público mexicano que lee las noticias y a la base de su partido Morena, adopta una postura nacionalista, defendiendo la soberanía mexicana frente al coloso intervencionista al norte del Río Bravo.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
As with many politicians, there is gap between what Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says and what she does, especially when it comes to the relationship with the United States. In her morning press briefings, which speak to the news-reading Mexican public and base of her Morena party, she takes a nationalist line, championing Mexican sovereignty against the interventionist colossus north of the Rio Grande. “We are not a protectorate of the United States.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. Ioan Grillo y Juan Alberto Cedillo - ¿Quiénes son los testigos de la acusación? (Preguntamos al abogado Lichtman si los Chapitos están involucrados). - Según fuentes, el senador Inzunza es familia de un importante narcotraficante.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
Ioan Grillo and Juan Alberto Cedillo U.S. officials on Wednesday unveiled an indictment in the Southern District of New York against current Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and nine other active and former Mexican officials on narco trafficking charges, throwing a bomb into the heart of Mexican politics and pushing President Claudia Sheinbaum into a tight corner.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. Durante la administración del presidente mexicano Felipe Calderón, un oficial de una de las agencias con sede en la embajada estadounidense describió cómo se puso un uniforme de la policía mexicana y salió a arrestar a presuntos traficantes sobre quienes había recabado información.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
During the administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón, an officer from one of the three-letter agencies stationed at the U.S. embassy describes how he put on a Mexican police uniform and rode out to arrest suspected traffickers who he had gathered intelligence on. He was in theory there as a “technical adviser,” but that stretched to being with the squad that kicked down the door and helping with the interrogation of the suspects.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
When Ghaleb Krame was working in the security department in Tamaulipas, he arranged to go for a breakfast in a prestigious restaurant in state capital Ciudad Victoria. However, he canceled at the last minute, which was lucky as gunmen came and sprayed it up. He soon learned he had a price on his head.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. En la madrugada del domingo, un convoy de vehículos de la policía estatal recorrió caminos montañosos peligrosos en la remota Sierra Tarahumara, al suroeste de Chihuahua, México, cerca de la frontera con Sinaloa. En al menos uno de los vehículos, posiblemente dos, viajaban agentes de la CIA junto con oficiales de la Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) de Chihuahua.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
In the early hours of Sunday morning, a convoy of state police vehicles drove over treacherous mountain roads in the remote Tarahumara Sierra in the southwest of Chihuahua, Mexico, near the border with Sinaloa. In at least one of the vehicles, possibly two, CIA agents rode with officers from Chihuahua’s State Investigation Agency, or AEI.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. Edith Guadalupe Valdés, de 21 años, salió de su casa en la alcaldía de Iztapalapa, en la Ciudad de México, el miércoles por la tarde, según su familia, para ir a una entrevista en lo que creía que era una agencia de modelos en la colonia Nonoalco, de clase media. Usando una aplicación para conseguir que la llevaran en motocicleta, llegó a la dirección indicada en un bloque de apartamentos y le envió su ubicación a una prima.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
Edith Guadalupe Valdés, 21, left her home in the Mexico City borough of Iztapalapa on Wednesday afternoon, her family say, to head to an interview at what she believed was a modeling agency in the middle-class Nonoalco neighborhood. Using an app to get a ride on a motorcycle, she arrived at the address in a block of apartments and pinged her location to a cousin. Soon after, she went off the radar.
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Claudia Sheinbaum: The 100 Most Influential People of 2026

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| TIME Verified
Luis Antonio Rojas—The New York Times/Redux Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum began her first full year in office with pressure from all sides. Donald Trump, then the U.S. President-elect, had threatened to slap tariffs on Mexico and launch American military strikes into its territory. Violent gangsters ran fentanyl and human smuggling over the Rio Grande. And her domestic critics claimed she would be overshadowed by her crusading predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. Hace unos años, conocí a un exmiembro de las fuerzas especiales francesas que trabajaba como guardaespaldas de diplomáticos. Estábamos hablando de ir a ciudades de alto riesgo. «No existen lugares peligrosos», me dijo. «Existen situaciones peligrosas». Tenía razón. Cuando los temerarios (o imprudentes) se aventuran en lugares peligrosos, la mayoría sale ilesa.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
A few years back, I met a French former special-forces trooper who was doing security for diplomats. We were discussing going to high-risk cities. “You don’t have dangerous places,” he told me. “You have dangerous situations.” He had a point. When the daring (or reckless) go to feared hot-spots, most come out okay most the time. Meanwhile, in a quaint English town, you still have the risk of a drunken lout shoving a glass in your face.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
The amount of major narco cases hitting U.S. courts right now is off the scale. Rafael Caro Quintero is heading to trial for trafficking, with the murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in the mix. Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who may have moved more bricks than anybody, is awaiting a sentencing hearing. Ryan Wedding, the former Olympic snow boarder, is represented by the grandson of a Mob boss and is yet to make a deal.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. Cuando se supo que el ejército mexicano había matado a El Mencho el domingo 22 de febrero, yo estaba en Tepoztlán, Morelos, después de una noche inquieta. Mientras me apresuraba a regresar a la Ciudad de México, y luego a Jalisco, para cubrir la noticia, mi teléfono y mi buzón de correo vibraban sin parar con cientos de solicitudes de entrevistas y artículos.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
When news broke the Mexican military had killed El Mencho on Sunday Feb. 22 , I was in Tepoztlán, Morelos, after a restless night. As I rushed back to Mexico City, and later to Jalisco, to cover the story, my phone and mail box buzzed red hot with literally hundreds of requests for interviews and articles. My priority, however, was to you readers at CrashOut, and to move reports fast on a kingpin killing that became the biggest story in the world.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. La mayoría conocerá a los cholos por las calles de Los Ángeles, Chicago o Houston, y por películas como Blood In, Blood Out (Sangre por Sangre) donde aparecían con la cabeza rapada, tatuajes y coches tuneados, sobre todo en los años ochenta y noventa.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
This photo essay may crunch in your email, but you can also see it on: www.crashoutmedia.com. Most will know cholos from the streets of Los Angeles, Chicago or Houston, and movies like Blood In, Blood Out, as guys with shaved heads, tattoos and low-rider cars, especially back in the eighties and nineties.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. El video subido a Instagram el lunes por la noche muestra a un adolescente con el pelo desaliñado y una camiseta negra de manga larga grabándose frente al espejo de una habitación. Con música de reguetón de fondo, la cámara enfoca un rifle tipo AR-15, que él apunta hacia su reflejo. Otro vídeo subido a la misma cuenta contiene la palabra “incel”, abreviatura de “célibe involuntario”.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
The video uploaded on Instagram on Monday night shows a teenager with scruffy hair and a long-sleeved black t-shirt filming himself in a bedroom mirror. With the backing of reggaetón music, the camera flashes down to an AR-15-style rifle, which he points at the reflection.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. El domingo, el presidente de Ecuador y aliado de Trump, Daniel Noboa, declaró una nueva ofensiva contra las bandas y los cárteles que han sumido al país en un baño de sangre, desplegando decenas de miles de soldados e imponiendo un toque de queda nocturno en amplias zonas del país.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
On Sunday, Ecuador’s president, and ally of Trump, Daniel Noboa declared a new offensive against gangs and cartels that have drowned the nation in blood, deploying tens of thousands of troops and declaring a nightly curfew in swathes of the country. The crackdown has caused tensions with Colombia, with accusations of cross-border bombs, and comes as U.S. forces continue to missile-strike alleged drug boats in the Pacific and Caribbean.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. Esta es la cuarta parte de una serie sobre el dinero del narco, o la cártel-economía. Las primeras partes son: i) ¿Cuánto dinero ganan los cárteles y dónde está?
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
This is part four in a series on narco cash, or cartel-onomics. The first parts are: I. How Much Money Do Cartels Make and Where Is It? II. Narco Bling and Dirty-Money Laundromats III. The Narc Asset Seizure Business Part IV : Cartel Cash in the Community As the Covid pandemic exploded in 2020, and people round the globe got hit by sickness, lock-downs, and shortages, cartels in Mexico handed out goodie bags of supplies and posted videos of their charity on social media.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo Original

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. El jefe del Cártel del Golfo, Osiel Cárdenas, fundó la fuerza paramilitar de los Zetas, que intensificó la guerra de las drogas en México hasta convertirla en una masacre infernal. Sin embargo, durante parte de su encarcelamiento en Estados Unidos, estuvo recluido en condiciones extraordinarias, con un bloque de celdas entero para él solo, acceso a internet y visitas de horas extra de su familia y su novia modelo.
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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
The Gulf Cartel boss Osiel Cárdenas founded the Zetas paramilitary force, who escalated the Mexican drug war into a hellish bloodbath. Yet during part of his incarceration in the United States, he was kept in extraordinary conditions, with a whole cell block to himself, access to the internet, and extra hour visits from his family and model girlfriend.
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The Bloody Life and Legacy of El Mencho

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| The New Yorker Verified
Tapalpa, Jalisco, is classified in Mexico as “a magical pueblo,” or special tourist town, with a Spanish church and cobblestoned streets, nestled between hills of bright-green agave, the spiky plant harvested for tequila. Early on February 22nd, residents woke up to the whirl of Army helicopters buzzing low over their houses, while those on the western edge of town heard gunshots and explosions.
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The Bloody Life and Legacy of El Mencho

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| Flipboard
‘We are going make a tonne of money’: US Senator Graham on US war on Iran The veteran GOP senator appears to suggest that the war on Iran was launched to gain control over its oil supplies. Lindsey Graham, the veteran Republican senator who has been pushing for war against Iran for decades, has issued a dire warning to the Iranian government, saying it was worth spending …
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Inside The Cabins Of Mencho's Last Stand

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
While El Mencho has been buried in a golden casket, we are yet to see a photo of his corpse (those that have been circulated have been found to be fake). When I went to the cabins where Mencho’s was captured I found some curious details that didn’t add up, including .50 caliber shells inside a room with no visible damage to the walls or windows. There could of course be a non-nefarious explanation.
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Los campos de la muerte de El Mencho

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By Ioan Grillo Verified
| CrashOut
To read the original story in English, click here. A principios de 2025, unos obreros que construían un complejo habitacional al noroeste de la mancha urbana de Guadalajara se toparon con un hallazgo macabro: bolsas de basura con huesos humanos enterrados en el terreno donde estaban colocando los cimientos. La constructora alertó a la fiscalía estatal, pero no intervino hasta que un periodista reveló el hallazgo.
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