Mexican

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico —  The tag on her white lab coat read “professional pharmacist,” and the framed health and safety certificates lining the walls behind her gave the drugstore an air of legitimacy.That pretense faded seconds later, when she was asked for controlled medications — and got on her hands and knees to pop open a hidden panel under the counter. She rooted around for a minute and emerged with two sealed bottles.“These are from licensed laboratories,” she said. “The problem is when you’re buying from a…

Gabriel “Sleepy” Huerta has been identified by testifying witnesses and confidential informants as an influential member of the Mexican Mafia, the prison-based organization that controls Latino gangs behind bars and on the streets of Southern California. But in a case brought this month, prosecutors accused Huerta of getting involved in a mundane squabble: A lost gun that led to a beat-down on the streets of his old neighborhood.Already serving 17 years to life for second-degree murder, Huerta, 64, is now charged with…

“When will the world end?” There’s a great deal of uncertainty in the life of seven-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes) right now, so she takes her mother’s phone to a quiet corner away from the bustle in her grandfather’s house and puts her big question to Siri. The little girl has picked up enough from the fragments of conversation of the adults thronging in the house to understand that, while the end is still a way off, her world, or at least part of it, is about to change for ever.The second film from Mexican actor turned…

Another longtime Denver-area restaurant, this one in Englewood, is closing. The beloved Mexican food spot, El Tepehuan, plans to shutter on Dec. 31 as its owner, Graciela Corral, retires, according to an announcement shared by her son, Miguel Corral. The restaurant, endearingly called El Tep by locals, dates back to 1978 when immigrant Jose David Corral of Sinaloa, Mexico, used his hard-earned money to “achieve his dream to open his own business,” according to the restaurant’s website. He named it El Tepehuan as an homage…

Amat Escalante is the Mexican film-maker who created the brutal and politically engaged crime drama Heli in 2013, for which he won the best director award in Cannes, and in 2016 the deeply strange body horror parable The Untamed which was a prizewinner at Venice. Now, after a stint on the streaming TV drama Narcos: Mexico he has directed and co-written this contorted Lynchian melodrama about Mexico’s corruption, cynicism and indifference, and all the secrets and lies that bloat the country’s ruling classes.Lost in the…

That Mexican OT is having a moment.The 24-year-old from Bay City, Texas, is the latest regional Mexican to take over the hearts and minds of a music-loving world. But instead of corridos tumbados y bélicos, and longing cumbias, Virgil Rene Gazca, better known as That Mexican OT (the OT stands for “Outta Texas”), is making waves in the world of Third Coast rap.That Mexican OT captured the attention of social media this week thanks to a clip that showed him standing in a field, flowing the chorus of “Johnny…

PALMAS ALTAS, Mexico —  Like many Mexicans in the United States, María Avila worked for decades north of the border with a simple dream: to one day return home.She toiled at a Palm Springs country club by day, served meals to wealthy clients at night and cleaned houses and mended clothes on the weekend, slowly saving to build a home of her own back in Juanchorrey, the wind-swept pueblo high in the mountains in Zacatecas state where she grew up.With five bedrooms, a Jacuzzi and a grand entryway capped by a cupola, the…

MEXICALI, Mexico —  As fentanyl has ravaged the United States, killing tens of thousands of Americans each year, Mexican leaders have insisted their country has been virtually untouched by the opioid.Mexico officially recorded just 19 deaths from all opioids in 2020, the most recent year for which data are available, with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador contending fentanyl is exclusively a U.S. problem — one he blames on American “social decay.”“There is a lot of disintegration of families, there is a lot of…

Michael Torres, a Mexican Mafia member who oversaw gangs in the San Fernando Valley and controlled drug and extortion rackets in the Los Angeles County jails, was stabbed to death in prison Thursday, authorities said.Torres, 59, was attacked around 9 a.m. at California State Prison, Sacramento, where he was serving 133 years to life for attempted murder, conspiracy, weapons offenses and witness tampering. Prison officials identified the assailants as Ray Martinez, 49, and Juan Angel Martinez, 47. The men, who are not…

It’s no secret that over the past few years, hackers have ramped up their efforts to gain unauthorized access and scam individuals and businesses out of their hard-earned money. Now, in a recent development, security researcher Pol Thill has identified a Mexican hacker going by the name Neo_Net as the mastermind behind a widespread Android mobile malware campaign. Operating from June 2021 to April 2023, this Mexican hacker primarily targeted prominent banks in Spain and Chile, including Santander, BBVA, and CaixaBank.…