The War Next Door

A surge in drug-related violence is terrorizing Mexico and sparking fears that the killing could cross the U.S. border

Juan Manuel Villasenor / AP

Investigators carry the body of a man killed in a likely drug-related incident in Monterrey, Mexico

Marcelo Garza Y Garza didn't want a lot of security around when he went out with his family one night last fall. Like most residents of Monterrey--a modern, U.S.-friendly metropolis in northern Mexico--Garza believed his city was still one of the safest in the country. But Garza was the top criminal investigator for the border state Nuevo León. That made him a marked man not just to the drug lords who had moved into Monterrey's posh suburbs but also to certain members of the local security services who, police say, have been recruited as hit men for drug cartels, earning as...

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