“The Justice Department spent years investigating Cienfuegos, who served as Mexico’s top defense official from 2012 to 2018 under then-president Enrique Peña Nieto. Prosecutors said they discovered thousands of exchanges that showed that he was also working with the H-2 cartel to expand its territory and move drugs into the United States. It appeared to be a blockbuster case, revealing deep connections between the Mexican state and the country’s criminal underworld.” U.S. judge drops narco-trafficking charges against former Mexican defense minister. (This is such a meta drug war story. You can’t go after one dirty official because they know about the other dirty officials. And I’m sure this deal has nothing to do with the fact that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador still refuses to congratulate Joe Biden and admit the US election is over. So many people have died in this phony, failed, farce of a war.)