The 2011 massacre carried out by the Zetas drug cartel in Allende, Mexico was a shocking reminder of the brutality of the black market, which thrives under governmental drug prohibition. The war on drugs does nothing to actually reduce drug supply or consumption, but it does keep the police state and cartels thriving, perhaps most notably the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

While stealing property from innocent people and ruining lives in the homeland, the DEA spreads its tentacles all over the world in its drug war crusade. This form of U.S. meddling, while contributing to corruption and economic sabotage in host countries, also has deadly consequences – including sparking the infamous Allende massacre.

An investigative report by ProPublica and National Geographic – barely mentioned in the mainstream media – describes how a gamble by the DEA in Mexico led to the Zetas cartel invading Allende and other towns to carry out mass murder and destruction.

‘But unlike most places in Mexico that have been ravaged by the drug war, what happened in Allende didn’t have its origins in Mexico. It began in the United States, when the Drug Enforcement Administration scored an unexpected coup. An agent persuaded a high-level Zetas operative to hand over the trackable cellphone identification numbers for two of the cartel’s most wanted kingpins, Miguel Ángel Treviño and his ​brother Omar.

Then the DEA took a gamble. It shared the intelligence with a Mexican federal police unit that has long had problems with leaks — even though its members had been trained and vetted by the DEA. Almost immediately, the Treviños learned they’d been betrayed. The brothers set out to exact vengeance against the presumed snitches, their families and anyone remotely connected to them.’

Surviving residents describe how dozens of trucks with armed men descended on the town, rounding up family members for execution and burning the bodies. No mercy was shown to the young. Homes and business were demolished after being looted.