ProPublica, in collaboration with National Geographic, published a story last week by Ginger Thompson about the massacre in Allende, Mexico, that occurred in March 2011. Gunmen from the Zetas cartel launched an attack on the quiet ranching town, a 40-minute drive from Eagle Pass, Texas, in retribution for a DEA operation. That operation was based on intel, specifically trackable cell phone PIN numbers, provided by a high-level Zetas operative from Dallas. But then the DEA shared the information they gathered on two of the cartel’s most wanted kingpins with the Mexican federal police, knowing the agency’s history with leaks. And the unthinkable happened.
Read this. You can even listen to the interviews. And then read Thompson’s article published Monday about the DEA’s accountability, or lack thereof. She raises some good questions about the costs of war.
