2026 in organized crime

In 2026, a number of events took place in organized crime.

Events

• January 3 – As part of the Operation Southern Spear, and the wider war on drugs, the United States orders airstrikes on Caracas, Venezuela, and captures Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and takes him to New York to be tried on drug and weapons charges.
• January 6 – Former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores plead not guilty to charges of drug trafficking and narcoterrorism.
• January 12 –
• Swedish police seize three tonnes of cocaine found in a shipping container from South America at the Port of Helsingborg, making it the country's single-largest seizure of the illegal drug.
• Spanish police, in coordination with the UK National Crime Agency and the US DEA, seize 10 tonnes of cocaine hidden among a cargo of salt on a cargo ship off the Canary Islands. It is the country's largest ever seizure of drugs at sea. Thirteen people on board the vessel are arrested.
• January 13 – Mexican police arrest six alleged Tren de Aragua members operating in Mexico City on charges of drug trafficking, extortion, and human trafficking.
• January 29 – Eleven members of a Burmese mafia family are executed in China.
• February 13 – The United States Armed Forces says it has conducted an airstrike on a boat suspected of transporting illegal narcotics in the Caribbean Sea, killing three people.
• February 22 – Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (alias "El Mencho"), leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), is killed during a security operation carried out by the Mexican Armed Forces near Tapalpa, Jalisco. In response, CJNG members launched coordinated retaliatory attacks, including road blockades involving burning vehicles and improvised checkpoints across multiple states.
• February 23 – Hugo César Macías Ureña, described as El Mencho's right-hand man, is fatally shot following him reportedly offering up to MX$20,000 for each soldier killed in retalliation for the death of El Mencho the previous day.
• March 13 – Bolivian authorities arrest suspected Uruguayan drug cartel leader Sebastián Marset during a police operation in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Marset, who is wanted by several countries and has a US$2 million reward linked to money laundering allegations, is detained along with four other individuals.
• March 18 – Ángel Esteban Aguilar Morales aka Lobo Menor, an Ecuadorean national suspected of leading the Los Lobos gang and wanted in Ecuador over the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio in 2023, is arrested in Mexico City and extradited to Colombia, where he is also wanted on charges of involvement with FARC dissidents.
• March 19 – A raid kills eleven members of the Sinaloa Cartel in Sinaloa, with a senior cartel leader being captured along with many weapons.

Arts and literature

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