Leon Crassé

It is not a coincidence that he led this cartel and took it to unprecedented heights

This happened in Tapalpa, Jalisco.

It was a scene from a movie.

helicopters overhead, gunfire in the mountains, the Mexican state finally closing in on a man who had seemed untouchable for so many years.

And it was not a quiet arrest.

Both his security forces, heavily armed, and the Mexican military clashed.

And in the end, he got severely injured.

And this is the official version of events.

And he, mind you, died en route to the hospital.

Almost 30 members of the Mexican armed forces died that day.

The day after that, the Secretary of Defense in Mexico joined President Sheinbaum in her daily morning press conference and began crying.

It was the most violent day for Mexican security forces since the Mexican Revolution 100 years ago.

We saw burning vehicles, airports in panic.

Foreign embassies telling their citizens to shelter in place.

And all of that was not random chaos, you know.

It was a demonstration of reach.

It was the cartel saying, you may have killed the boss, but the structure remains and it can paralyze part of the country when it chooses.

The cartels go about their business, but if the state disrupts that business, they can certainly strike back.

And in my instinct is that the major cartels are unlikely to disrupt the World Cup, not because they are decent, obviously, but because they are criminal businesses.

I mean, they do not benefit in any way from bringing global attention, international outrage and more U.S.