The biggest World Cup ever has arrived, with 104 games set to take place across the US, Canada and Mexico over the next five weeks. UK fans will be able to watch every match free-to-air on BBC and ITV – and STV in Scotland – with kick-off times ranging from the kinder 6pm and 8pm BST slots to games throughout the night. England face Croatia at 9pm BST on ITV, while Scotland take on Morocco at 11pm BST, also on ITV. But as millions prepare to tune in, the tournament’s Mexican host city of Guadalajara is grappling with a dark reality: cartel violence that has seen around a third of the country ruled by drug gangs and more than 130,000 people missing nationwide.
Among those missing is Daniel Flores Fernández, who was just 19 when men linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) stormed his apartment in Guadalajara one Saturday in May 2021. They snatched him from his pregnant girlfriend and unborn child. Half a decade on, he is still missing. His father Héctor has since learned his son is being held prisoner at a CJNG “safe house”, where unwilling recruits are forced to work for Mexico’s most violent drug gang. “All I can do is hope that he comes back to me one day,” Héctor says. “The pain is tremendous.”
“World Cup 2026: UK fans can watch all 104 games free-to-air on BBC and ITV as cartel violence clouds Guadalajara.”
The CJNG emerged in 2010 after the Milenio gang broke up, and has since expanded to a presence in some 40 countries. Its big earner is drugs: the cartel pulls in billions of dollars annually trafficking fentanyl, meth and cocaine to the US. Jalisco’s geography is key, with chemical precursors imported through ports such as Manzanillo and finished narcotics smuggled north. The cartel is now infamous for staging brazen attacks against Mexican government officials. Its leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes – known as “El Mencho” – remained at large, deeply embarrassing President Claudia Sheinbaum ahead of the World Cup. Further pressure came from Donald Trump, who pushed Sheinbaum to “go after” the cartels, ominously warning he’d put US boots on the ground if she didn’t.
Things came to a head in February when Mexican special forces swooped on El Mencho. He was fatally wounded, Mexican officials say, following a shootout at a remote mountain property near the town of Tapalpa, about 100 miles southwest of Guadalajara. Yet while the security forces may keep order during the tournament – Guadalajara’s gleaming Akron Stadium is hosting games – the scourge of the drug gangs will linger long after the final whistle blows.