Radio Tecnico: How The Zetas Cartel Took Over Mexico With Walkie-Talkies

Illustration by Donyung Lee On September 16, 2008, Carl Pike, the deputy head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Special Operations Division, watched live video feeds from a command center outside Washington, D.C., as federal agents fanned out across dozens of U.S. cities. In Dallas, a team in SWAT gear tossed a flash-bang grenade into a suburban home and, once inside, discovered six pounds of cocaine behind a stove, and a stockpile of guns. At a used-car dealer's house in Carmel, Indiana,...