His friends came by periodically, to smoke weed or listen to music in the dark. He used them to ferry messages to people on the outside, including drug dealers. The sicario had helped dismantle his former cartel, leaving it in shambles. On the outside, his enemies would see him as weak, no longer under the protection of the police. He liked to claim that his reputation on the streets kept his family safe, but that wasn’t entirely true, either.

Source: New York Times December 14, 2019 09:56 UTC