RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A high-ranking leader of a Mexican drug cartel who lived in the U.S. under a phony identity after faking his own death has been arrested on federal charges, the Justice Department said Thursday.
Cristian Fernando Gutierrez Ochoa – the son-in-law of the fugitive Jalisco New Generation cartel boss known as “El Mencho” – was arrested this week on drug trafficking and money laundering offenses in Riverside where he had been living using a fake name after fleeing Mexico, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say Gutierrez Ochoa, 37, faked his own death and fled to the U.S. to avoid Mexican authorities after kidnapping two members of the Mexican Navy in 2021. His father-in-law, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes or “El Mencho,” told associates he killed Gutierrez Ochoa for lying, helping the man escape to the U.S. to be with “El Mencho’s” daughter, the Justice Department said.
Gutierrez Ochoa is accused of conspiring to import thousands of kilograms of methamphetamine and cocaine into the U.S., and using violence to further the cartel’s illegal activities. He’s accused of kidnapping the two Mexican Navy members in 2021 in the hopes of securing the release of “El Mencho’s” wife after she had been arrested by Mexican authorities, according to the Justice Department.
“The Jalisco Cartel – one of the world’s most violent and prolific drug trafficking organizations – is weaker today because of the tenacious efforts of law enforcement to track down and arrest a cartel leader who allegedly faked his own death and assumed a false identity to evade justice and live a life of luxury in California,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement.
An email seeking comment was sent to an attorney appointed to represent Gutierrez Ochoa.
The U.S. State Department has offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of “El Mencho,” an alias that is a play on his first name.
“El Mencho’s” son was convicted in a U.S. federal court in September of charges that he used violence, including the deadly downing of a military helicopter, to help his father operate one of the country’s largest and most dangerous narcotics trafficking organizations.
Rubén Oseguera, known as “El Menchito,” was convicted after a trial in Washington’s federal court of conspiring to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine for U.S. importation and using a firearm in a drug conspiracy.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — If you keep a close eye on your natural gas bill, you’ll soon notice a slight rate hike.
Starting this month, CenterPoint Energy customers will start paying more on their gas bills.
According to ABC13’s news partners at the Houston Chronicle, including the cost of gas, the average residential CenterPoint customer in Houston is expected to pay 12 cents more on their monthly bill.
That’s much less than the $5 increase CenterPoint had requested when it applied to change the rates last year.
Houston City Council rejected that figure back in April.
CenterPoint Energy said it is ahead of schedule in its action plan to become more storm-resilient by next summer in the…Show more
CenterPoint said Phase One of their action plan finished early.
During that portion, they installed 1,000 stronger storm-resilient power poles and trimmed or removed about 2,000 power line miles worth of vegetation.
Phase Two, which started at the beginning of September, is supposed to be finished by this coming June and includes more of the same – replacing power poles, trimming trees, and putting power lines underground.
HOUSTON, Texas — Lively Houston has regained its rightful place among the top 50 best cities in the world, according to a prestigious new report by Resonance Consultancy.
The Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing advisors ranked Houston the 40th best city worldwide for 2025 in its annual “World’s Best Cities” list.
The report quantifies the relative qualities of livability, “lovability,” and prosperity for the world’s top 100 cities with metropolitan populations of 1 million or more. New to the 10th anniversary edition, Resonance partnered with global market researchers Ipsos to include perception-based data into the rankings, surveying over 22,000 people in 30 countries worldwide to determine “the most desirable places to visit, live or work.”
Houston made a major rebound after plummeting to No. 66 in last year’s report. In 2022, Houston ranked No. 42.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Authorities have confirmed that a man has been charged with capital murder in the death of his sister and niece, who were found stabbed inside a west Houston apartment early Friday.
Family members say Kendrick Rayvon Fisher, 29, had been staying with his 28-year-old sister, Genene, at the Knox at Westchase apartment complex.
At about 3:30 a.m., police say they were flagged down and told that the woman and her daughter were being held hostage inside their apartment.
HPD said once officers arrived at the third-floor apartment, the suspect was found covered in blood, asleep on the couch, and the 28-year-old and 2-year-old were found with multiple stab wounds. They were pronounced dead at the scene
During his arrest, HPD said Fisher was found with injuries consistent with a physical altercation.
“I don’t understand hurting your own sister, hurting a woman, hurting another person, period. But what possessed you to hurt this baby?” Emmanuel Thomas said, who is a close neighbor of the Fisher family.
Jail records show the suspect had gotten out of prison in December 2023 after serving a seven-year sentence for armed robbery with extra time tagged on for being caught with contraband.
According to the neighbor, Fisher had been living with his sister for a few months. He also said residents would feel uneasy around him. Not only the residents but Fisher’s own family also had this feeling.
The suspect’s mother spoke with several reporters on Friday and said he had gotten physical with her.
“He had already beat the hell out of me,” Fisher’s mother, Joanna, said.
According to the neighbor ABC13 spoke with earlier, there was no tension between the suspect and his sister.
“We could see no red flags. This was just completely out of the blue,” Thomas said.
Officials said that Fisher was taken into custody at the Harris County Jail and has since been denied bond.
NEW YORK (AP) — Christmas came early at the box office this year.
“Moana 2” brought in a tidal wave of moviegoers over the Thanksgiving Day weekend, setting records with $221 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. That, combined with “Wicked”and “Gladiator II,” made for an unprecedented weekend in cinemas and a confluence of blockbusters more like what’s often found in late December.
Expectations were high for Walt Disney Co.’s “Moana 2,” but the film — originally planned as a series for Disney+ before it was redirected to the big screen — blew predictions out of the water. Its five-day opening set a new record for Thanksgiving moviegoing. (The previous best was $125 million for “Frozen 2” in its second week of release in 2019.) “Moana 2” added $165.3 million internationally; with $386 million worldwide, it’s the second-best global launch of the year.
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At the same time, the sensation of “Wicked”showed no signs of slowing down. The Universal Pictures musical brought in $117.5 million over the five-day weekend, pushing its two-week global total to $359.2 million. Not accounting for inflation, “Wicked” is now the highest grossing Broadway adaptation over “Grease.” (That 1978 film grossed $190 million, but factoring in inflation would put it past $900 million.)
Those three films drove the overall box office to a record $420 million in overall Thanksgiving weekend ticket sales, according to Comscore — more than $100 million more than ever before. For an industry that has been battered in recent years by the pandemic, work stoppages and the upheaval caused by streaming, it was a triumphant weekend that showed the still-potent power of Hollywood’s blockbuster machine. Before “Wicked,” “Moana 2” and “Gladiator II” arrived in theaters, ticket sales were running about 25% behind pre-pandemic levels.
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Michael O’Leary, president and chief executive of the National Association of Theatre Owners, said the weekend showed what’s possible when “all the pieces of the puzzle come together” in compelling big-budget movies with marketing muscle.
“We’re very optimistic that this weekend is the start of what we believe is a full-on charge into the future,” he said. “The remaining quarter of this year looks very promising and then on into 2025 and 2026. We’re hoping next year is the first kind of normal year this industry has had in a long time.”
Like the last time such anticipated movies collided on the release calendar — 2023’s much-ballyhooed “Barbenheimer” — the movie industry again could see evidence of a rising moviegoing tide lifting all blockbusters. In recent years, studios have typically tried to space out most of their biggest releases. Earlier this fall, “Venom: The Last Dance,” for example, was the No. 1 film for three straight weeks, despite not being particularly successful.
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“For a long, long time in Hollywood, there’s been a belief that you don’t put big blockbuster movies up against each other,” said O’Leary. “But the truth of the matter is that competition is good. It’s good for the movies. It’s good for the studios. It’s good for the theater owners. But it’s particularly good for the moviegoing public.”
“Moana 2” was the nexus of a strategy shift for Disney. When it first began development, it was fashioned as a series for streaming. But when Bob Iger returned as chief executive, he reconsidered the balance between theatrical and streaming. The original “Moana,” after all, was the most streamed movie on Disney+ in 2023, with the added benefit of $680 million in box office in 2016. Only in February this year did Iger announce the release of “Moana 2,” with Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson returning as the voices of Moana and Maui.
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“It just shows you that the big screen and small screen are not adversarial. They can be complementary and additive,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “Whoever made that decision to go big screen globally with ‘Moana 2,’ that was one of the greatest decisions ever.”
And it helped lead a resurgence for Walt Disney Co., whose last two animated November releases — “Strange World” and “Wish” — fizzled in theaters. “Moana 2” may become the third $1 billion-grossing movie for the studio in 2024, along with “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Though reviews for “Moana 2″ have only been 65% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences gave it an “A-” CinemaScore.
“Moana 2” is also part of a major rebound for family moviegoing. According to David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter for Franchise Entertainment, family moviegoing in 2024 is going to account for approximately $6.8 billion in ticket sales, roughly the sums of 2022 and 2023, combined.
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After such large debuts, “Moana 2” and “Wicked” are likely to continue to drive moviegoing through December. The only question will be if this year’s Christmas movies — historically a much bigger holiday period for theaters — can come anywhere near the Thanksgiving lineup. Among the movies aiming for that holiday corridor are Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King,” Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 3″ and Searchlight’s “A Complete Unknown,” with Timothée Chalamet as a young Bob Dylan.
Final domestic figures will be released Monday. Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
1. “Moana 2,” $135 million.
2. “Wicked,” $80 million.
3. “Gladiator II” $30.7 million.
4. “Red One,” $12.9 million.
5. “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” $3.3 million.
PEARLAND, Texas (KTRK) — A man accused of firing shots at Pearland police officers, sparking a SWAT standoff, has been taken into custody, according to police.
Pearland police said officers were called to an apartment complex at 2701 Old Alvin Road around 8:45 a.m. Sunday after a concerned citizen spotted bullet holes in the door of an apartment.
When officers arrived, they determined the bullet holes originated from inside the unit.
The officers used a ballistic shield for protection as they approached the apartment door and knocked. That’s when Pearland PD said the suspect fired shots at them from inside.
Fortunately, at least one of the rounds hit the ballistic shield, and no officers were injured, officials said.
The suspect barricaded himself inside the apartment, sparking a SWAT unit response. He was later taken into custody at 11:50 a.m.
Further information about the suspect’s arrest was not immediately released.
An ABC13 crew is at the scene gathering further information. Come back to this post for updates.
The Return of the Texas-Texas A&M Rivalry: A Timeline of Separation and Pettiness
On Thanksgiving Day 2011, the Texas-Texas A&M football rivalry appeared to end when Longhorns senior and future NFL star Justin Tucker nailed a 40-yard game-winning field goal, sealing a 27-25 victory. It marked a bittersweet conclusion to a series that began in 1894.
“It was special,” Tucker said. “This is what we play for in college football. Putting a smile on every Longhorn fan’s face tonight was special to me.”
However, the game’s abrupt end wasn’t just about competition—it was a casualty of conference realignment. Texas A&M left the Big 12 for the SEC in 2012, leaving the rivalry in limbo. The Longhorns wouldn’t join the SEC until another major realignment more than a decade later.
The Separation Years: Lingering Rivalry, New Venues
Though the teams haven’t met on the football field in over 4,700 days, the rivalry persisted through social media spats, legislative pushes, and other sports competitions.
2012: Texas replaced A&M on Thanksgiving with TCU, while A&M began facing Missouri. Fueled by Johnny Manziel’s Heisman-winning season and a win over No. 1 Alabama, A&M thrived, while Texas’ Alex Okafor dismissed A&M’s SEC ambitions.
2013: Legislative attempts to force the rivalry’s return began. HB 778, introduced by a Texas A&M graduate, proposed penalizing the school that refused to play. Similar measures failed in subsequent years. Administrators and coaches traded barbs, with Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds declaring, “They left. We get to decide when we play again.”
2014–2017: As Texas experienced leadership changes, A&M capitalized on its SEC success. Aggies officials mocked the Longhorn Network, and the programs took jabs at each other’s performance and traditions. Efforts to rekindle the rivalry, including a proposed 2022–2023 home-and-home series, were rejected by A&M.
Renewed Hope: Texas Joins the SEC
The rivalry’s revival became inevitable when Texas announced its move to the SEC in 2021. Despite initial resistance from A&M leadership, SEC expansion set the stage for the historic matchup to return.
2021: Texas A&M protested Texas’ inclusion in the SEC, citing an unwritten “gentleman’s agreement” to avoid in-state competition. Former A&M chancellor R. Bowen Loftin criticized Texas, claiming, “They have a very high opinion of themselves—but not always justified.”
2024: After years of speculation, the Longhorns and Aggies will face off in their first SEC season together. Texas enters the game as a top contender for the conference title, while A&M seeks to reassert itself under new head coach Mike Elko.
A Rivalry Rekindled
Both Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian and A&M’s Mike Elko have welcomed the game’s return. Elko noted, “When you have two programs like that in the same state two hours away, they should play every year. It should mean a lot.”
After 13 years of trash talk, political maneuvers, and longing from fans, Saturday night will mark the rebirth of one of college football’s greatest rivalries.
FREEPORT, Texas (KTRK) — A group of pests derailed a charitable mission in Freeport on Monday.
The Blue Santa Toy Drive, held by the Freeport Police Department, was put in jeopardy after rats soiled hundreds of donations.
Since 2015, Freeport has orchestrated Christmas magic for kids across the community.
Every year, their Blue Santa program provides toys to over 300 families.
“It’s one of the best parts of jobs being able to see the smiles on kids’ faces when they see the toys that Santa brought,” Chief Jennifer Howell with the Freeport Police Department.
Howell says that on Monday, the department’s elves were ready to get to work, but unfortunately, some rats beat them to it. Howell said they infiltrated their city storage facility and ruined all the toys.
“Very heartbreaking to ultimately throw all those toys away, but after speaking to the CDC and the Department of State and Health Services, it just wasn’t worth any risk, for you know, any child to get sick,” she said.
Word of their incredible loss reached the ears of Angleton restaurant owner Jim Luna.
It was a divine intervention, really, given that he had been searching to no avail for a place to donate the toys he and some sponsors had collected.
“It was meant to be. It wasn’t planned, and usually, those are the biggest blessings when you just find it,” Luna said.
Luna and his grandson did just that on a holiday centered around giving. They delivered four industrial-size bags full of toys.
“I said,’ ‘Hey, we have three more at my sister-in-law’s house, so we are going to bring those tomorrow morning,'” Luna said.
So, how did the rats get in? Chief Howell said it was an unfortunate side effect of Hurricane Beryl and the damage it did to their city buildings.
It appears they took a page out of the Grinch’s book.
“The rats stole Christmas, and we were able to push those grinches away,” said Luna.
If you’d like to donate, there is still a need. You can drop off toys or monetary donations at the Freeport Police Department.
Workers for the largest online retailer in the world are planning to go on strike during one of the busiest shopping weekends of the holiday season.
Amazon employees are preparing to protest in 20 countries, including in major cities in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and Brazil, starting on Black Friday over “labor abuses, environmental degradation and threats to democracy,” according to UNI Global Union and Progressive International, a Switzerland-based global labor union.
Dubbed the “Make Amazon Pay days of resistance,” the strike is scheduled to last from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, the union announced in a press release. Demonstrators are calling for increased wages and for employees to be permitted to unionize.
The strike could lead to delays in holiday deliveries for customers, economy experts told ABC News.
Unions and allied groups around the world are planning to participate, according to UNI Global Union.
The Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and Citizen’s Action will hold protests in multiple cities across France, and garment workers will also take to the streets in Bangladesh, the union said.
This year marks the fifth annual Make Amazon Pay demonstration, which aims to “hold Amazon accountable around the world” by targeting a busy holiday shopping weekend. In 2023, Amazon represented 18% of the worldwide Black Friday sales, with more than $170 billion in total holiday sales, according to an earnings report released earlier this year.
“Amazon’s relentless pursuit of profit comes at a cost to workers, the environment and democracy,” said Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union. “[Jeff] Bezos’ company has spent untold millions to stop workers from organizing, but the strikes and protests happening around the world show that workers’ desire for justice — for union representation — can’t be stopped. We stand united in demanding that Amazon treat its workers fairly, respect fundamental rights, and stop undermining the systems meant to protect us all.”
Amazon defended its treatment of workers in a statement to ABC News on Thursday.
“This group is being intentionally misleading and continues to promote a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards said. “The fact is at Amazon we provide great pay, great benefits, and great opportunities — all from day one. We’ve created more than 1.5 million jobs around the world, and counting, and we provide a modern, safe, and engaging workplace whether you work in an office or at one of our operations buildings.”
The company announced earlier this year a $2.2 billion investment to increase pay for fulfillment and transportation employees in the U.S. As a result, the average base wage for these employees is now more than $22 per hour and the average total compensation more than $29 per hour when the value of their elected benefits is factored in, according to the company.
Comprehensive benefits for these employees that begin on the first day of employment include health, vision and dental insurance; a 401(k) with 50% company match; up to 20 weeks paid leave, which includes 14 weeks of pregnancy-related disability leave and six weeks of parental leave; and Amazon’s Career Choice program, which prepays college tuition, according to Amazon.
An earlier statement to ABC News from Amazon stated: “While we’re always listening and looking at ways to improve, we remain proud of the competitive pay, comprehensive benefits and engaging, safe work experiences we provide our teams.”
Amazon workers have been outspoken in recent years about workers’ rights, especially as the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic increased the number of online orders. E-commerce sales in the U.S. increased by $244.2 billion — or 43% — in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, rising from $571.2 billion in 2019 to $815.4 billion in 2020, according to the Census Bureau’s Annual Retail Trade Survey.
In June 2023, nearly 2,000 Amazon workers organized a walkout after a mandate to return to the office was issued. In Kentucky, Amazon employees who spoke to ABC News alleged that the company was leading a union-busting campaign to discourage employees from organizing.
Amazon told ABC News last year that the disciplinary action taken by the company at an Amazon facility in Kentucky came in response to infractions of company policy.
“Amazon squeezes everything that it can get, but it changes its behavior depending on its jurisdiction,” James Schneider, communications director for Progressive International, told ABC News this week. “Let’s say, in Sweden, it engages much better at how it operates with trade unions. But in the U.S., it engages in union busting.”
A 2022 report by the United Nations’ International Labour Organization found that post-pandemic inflation and the rising cost of living have been decreasing the value of minimum wage globally.
The rise of inflation has paved the way for collective action, experts say. (Starbucks was also part of the 2022 union resurgence.)
“Amazon is everywhere, but so are we. By uniting our movements across borders, we can not only force Amazon to change its ways but lay the foundations of a world that prioritizes human dignity, not Jeff Bezos’ bank balance,” said Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, Progressive International’s co-general coordinator.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Investigators are trying to determine how a mother and her toddler died at a west Houston apartment complex early Friday morning.
The Houston Police Department confirmed the crime scene was unfolding on Richmond Avenue near Shadowbriar in the Eldridge/Oaks West neighborhood.
HPD found the mother, in her 20s, and her daughter – between 2 and 4 years old – both dead in a third-floor apartment after a family member of the woman flagged down officers in the area around 2:45 a.m.
Police said they found a man with blood on him in the apartment and have identified him as a person of interest in this case.
“As they arrived at the apartment, an occupant stepped out,” HPD Asst. Chief J. Bryant said. “They immediately detained him because they noticed suspicious activity at the apartment.”
Investigators aren’t releasing much information about how the mother and daughter were killed or what the man’s relationship with them is. However, police said they’re not looking for anyone else connected with the two deaths.
