Tensions are rising along the Mexico-U.S. border — this time on the eastern side — due to an incident that has quietly made its way to the press. Ten days ago, U.S. Coast Guard personnel patrolling the Rio Grande area between Texas and Tamaulipas exchanged gunfire with suspected armed men who were crossing from the Mexican side. No injuries or fatalities were reported, but authorities have launched separate operations on both sides of the border — a deployment that, at its core, reignites fears of intervention by Washington on Mexican territory.

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On the day of his sentencing hearing in New York this summer, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada read a letter overflowing with remorse. After a decades-long career in drug trafficking, the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel said his goodbyes with a mea culpa for everything he had done, without expanding greatly. Given his expected influence over the regional underworld, he dared to send a message to young people. “Choose a different path,” he said. “There is no honor in violence nor anything lasting in crime; they only bring pain and loss.” It is not known whether his second-born son knew about his father’s letter. But it is fairly clear that, if he did, he paid it no heed.

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The U.S. Department of the Treasury struck on Tuesday at the criminal network led by Ismael Zambada Sicairos, alias Mayito Flaco, leader of a criminal organization operating in Sinaloa, Durango and Baja California, among other regions of Mexico. The son of longtime Sinaloa cartel boss Ismael Mayo Zambada, Sicairos appears as a person of interest to the U.S. government, which has sanctioned a total of 21 individuals, as well as 25 companies linked to the network.

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On the way back home, Jonathan Meléndez began to feel nervous. He called home and nobody answered. Uneasy, he called the security booth at the housing complex where he lived, and asked them to buzz the apartment through the intercom to see if anyone picked up. On his phone he opened the app that gave access to his Alexa, a smart-home device that allowed him to view the camera feed, speak through his phone and have his voice play on the device’s speaker… But there was nothing. It was after 7 pm. The friend riding with Meléndez in the car says he became concerned by then. Something happened in the following minutes, something Jonathan saw on the Alexa footage, or perhaps someone finally answered the phone, because at 7.20 pm he called the building security supervisor and asked him to call the police: “He told me his business partner was armed.”

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