Although the Mexican government's idea of creating a National Gendarmerie has been criticized for lack of clarity and failure to define objectives, one official has indicated that the president intends to go ahead with the proposal without passing the idea through Congress or allowing for public debate. Security analyst Alejandro Hope examines the continuing issues surrounding the proposed police body and the implications of a unilateral decree mandating its creation.

Vigilantes in Mexico launched an audacious assault on a Michoacan town and were apparently on the point of executing the local police when they were beaten back by a military counterattack.

The US Treasury Department has placed an alleged Zetas drug trafficker on its "Kingpin List," increasing the pressure on the financial side of the Mexican cartel's criminal operations. 

Recent reports of fierce fighting between community police groups and a Mexican gang offer a window into the potential threat of vigilante groups to organized crime.

Mexico's government has pledged to focus renewed efforts on supporting the estimated 230,000 victims displaced by the country's violence last year, as international aid agencies await for the green light to begin assisting those "internal refugees" in need.

Hydrocarbon theft in Mexico so far this year has nearly doubled in comparison with 2012, with the worst hit zones corresponding to some of Mexico's drug war hotspots.

President Enrique Peña Nieto appears to be dialing back the Mexican government's years-long attempt to forge the creation of unified police commands in all 32 states, a model seen by some as the best way to improve the ability of the security forces to take on organized crime.

Mexico's drug war has caused a 30 percent increase in mental illness in the country's population, according to a top psychiatrist, highlighting the lesser-known impacts of organized crime.

A German arms manufacturer has admitted to illegally selling thousands of rifles to Mexico, where the weapons were reportedly used to commit human rights violations.

In one indication of how much the conflict in Tijuana has evolved since 2009, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a new poster identifying the six most-wanted drug traffickers in the border region -- five of them members of the Sinaloa Cartel.