The Cienfuegos Affair: Inside the Case that Upended the Drug War in Mexico

A Times Magazine-ProPublica investigation reveals how the U.S. painstakingly built a case against a Mexican general suspected of links to organized crime — and then decided to let him go.

Seth DuCharme, who had returned to the Eastern District as the interim U.S. attorney after working as one of Attorney General William P. Barr’s counselors, told the court that the Justice Department had no doubts about the strength of the evidence against the general, but that its “broader interests” in preserving cooperation in the drug fight had been deemed more important than his prosecution.

Click here to read more from The New York Times Magazine.