A 15-year-old kid named Edgar Jiménez Lugo, also known as "El Ponchis," was sentenced to three years in jail yesterday by a Mexican court for beheading four people on behalf of a drug cartel, as well as drug trafficking and kidnapping. A U.S. citizen born in San Diego, Lugo gained notoriety last year after he confessed on video (above) to killing cartel rivals and random people for money and drugs, which he started doing at age 11. Lugo's sentence was the maximum available given his age.

If you're like everyone else these days, you occasionally ask yourself, "What's the dumbest way that can I blow some of my disposable income?" Remember when State Senator Steve Smith (the "birther bill" guy) hatched a plan to accept donations to help build a fence along Arizona's border with Mexico? Well, their website went live today!

Mexican soldiers yesterday raided a 300-acre marijuana farm in Baja California — a find that authorities say is the biggest in the country's storied drug-growing history. General Alfonso Duarte told Reuters, "This is the biggest marijuana plantation we have found in the country," and guessed that it was staffed by as many as 60 people.

Mexican feds are on a roll. Just weeks after announcing they'd caught El Chango, Jesús Aguilar, a leader the Zetas cartel, was arrested and paraded in front of press. He's suspected in the killing of a U.S. drug agent. [NYT]

Mexican authorities announced they have captured the leader of La Familia, the cultish cartel responsible for some of the most nightmarish acts committed throughout that country's ongoing drug wars.

El Brad Pitt was arrested on Wednesday in northern Mexico on suspicion that he leads the Juarez Cartel's armed wing. Pitt is accused of orchestrating car bombings and killing people on video. Oh, it's a different "Brad Pitt." Sorry!

The Los Angeles Times has read the congressional report on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation called Fast and Furious during which federal agents sold 1,765 guns to Mexican smugglers (and then drug cartels), and guess what? It was a really bad idea.

The Houston Chronicle talked to a cartel trafficker this weekend, "in an interview arranged by intermediaries on the condition neither his name nor the location of his Texas visit be published." Anonymous Trafficker has either witnessed the most sadistic crimes imaginable, or is totally fucking with us:

Summer's here, so it's time for some handy outdoors D.I.Y. projects. Like this delightful homemade "tank," one of "at least 100" built by Mexican drug cartels!

Body-modification superstar Mariajosé Cristerna enjoyed a surge of popularity recently when photos of the "Vampire Woman of Mexico," as she is better known, went cross-platform viral — popping up on everything from supermarket tabloids to Fox News and The Huffington Post.

Tea Party Patriots™ and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer have initiated a Kickstarter-style scheme to solicit donations for a border fence to keep the Mexicans out of their righteous, desert oasis. Pretty clever. So, what can donors expect in return for their contributions (besides resting in the knowledge that they're True Patriots, of course)? The sponsor of the bill that Brewer signed, state Senator Steve Smith of "birther bill" fame, told the AP that contributors might receive a piece of paper that reads, "[I] helped build the Arizona wall." Uh, cool. He adds, "I think it's going to be a really, really neat thing." Golly, keeping them dang Mexicans out of America's grundle is going to be just swell. Pitch in while there's still time! You'll also be paying for the 50 cents an hour that Arizona inmates will receive for their work on the fence. Win-win.

Mexican You-Don't-Even-Want-to-Know-How-Many-Billionaire Carlos Slim is the richest man in the world (and subprime lender of choice for the New York Times!). He's also a monopolistic bastard, unsurprisingly.

Happy Monday morning, everyone. Remember that huge mass grave of murder victims found in Mexico this month? Yes, well. It's up to 177 bodies now. And, believe it or not, its mere existence is not the worst part.

Ayapaneco is a dying language, once spoken in what is now the Mexican state of Tabasco. There are only two speakers left, both of whom live in the same village. And they refuse to talk to each other.

Most Americans think of our neighbor to the south, the land of Meh-hee-ko, as a place primarily populated by taco-wielding mariachi bands passing out tequila shots in a welcoming spirit of friendship, speaking "espanyole." We regret to inform you that that impression may be overoptimistic.

Running easily purchased American guns to Mexican gangs is all the rage these days in the Great American Southwest, so you know it couldn't be long until a border town's mayor, sheriff, and city council got in on the fun.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday filed a memo in support of extraditing former Survivor and Pimp My Ride producer Bruce Beresford-Redman to Mexico on suspicion of murdering his wife in Cancun last year. The Los Angeles Times got a copy of the 45-page extradition memorandum. He fled Mexico after his wife's body was found stuffed in a waste water treatment pump, and he was found with cuts across his body. His lawyers have until the end of April to respond.

Texas governor Rick Perry yesterday went on a tirade about border control and Mexico, asking "How many more American citizens are going to have to die?" He then said, "Juarez is reported to be the most dangerous city in America." Oops. [Politico; via Daily Intel]

A drug gang murdered a woman distributing newspapers in Ciudad Juarez because she was a "threat" to their vending racket. Jesus.

After blowing $1 billion on an electronic "virtual fence" along the border with Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security yesterday finally ditched the $7 billion project in favor of surveillance drones and human patrols. Bravo, DHS. Money well spent. [NYT]