Mexican authorities on Monday raised the death toll from an attack on a state prison in Ciudad Juarez across the border from El Paso, Texas to 17, a brazen operation that appeared designed to free the leader of a local gang. Twenty-five inmates escaped in the attack. Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodriguez said 10 of the dead were prison guards who were attacked by gunmen who arrived early Sunday in armored vehicles and fired on the entrance and inside dormitories. Rodriguez identified the inmates who escaped as being with the Mexicles gang, which she associated with the Caborca Cartel. She said the Mexicles’ leader was among the fugitives. The Mexicles have been one of Juarez’s main gangs for decades and for many years were known to work with the Sinaloa Cartel. The Caborca Cartel had been led by drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero who was recaptured in July. Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval said the soldiers and state police who retook control of the prison found 10 “VIP” cells outfitted with televisions and other comforts. One even had a safe filled with cash. Authorities also found cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and marijuana inside the prison. Sandoval said two other gunmen killed…

A Los Angeles jury on Friday found rapper Tory Lanez guilty of three felonies in the 2020 shooting of hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion that left her wounded with bullet fragments in her feet. The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for one day before convicting the 30-year-old Canadian rapper, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. The counts could lead to up to 22 years in prison. Lanez showed no visible reaction as the verdict was read. He was handcuffed while in the courtroom. Megan Thee Stallion, whose legal name is Megan Pete, testified during the trial that Lanez fired a handgun at the back of her feet and shouted for her to dance as she walked away from an SUV in which they had been riding in the Hollywood Hills in the summer of 2020. She said the two had gotten into a dispute that got especially heated when she began insulting his music. She needed surgery to remove bullet fragments from her feet. The shooting set off a storm of cultural issues and arguments that peaked…

Texas’s current statewide gas price average is $2.76 per gallon of regular unleaded fuel, AAA Texas announced in a press release. That is eight cents less when it is compared to the same day last week and 17 cents less per gallon compared to the previous year. Of the major metropolitan cities, Midland drivers are paying the most on average at $2.97 per gallon. McAllen metro residents are paying the least with $2.55 per gallon, according to AAA Texas. AAA Texas also added that the current national average for a gallon of unleaded is $3.33, 14 cents less compared to this day last week and one cent less than the price per gallon at this same time last year. Courtesy of Texas News – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth …