The reputed head of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel has instructed his associates to use deadly force if necessary — even against U.S. law enforcement — to protect their increasingly contested trafficking operations, according to law-enforcement authorities here and in Washington.

The threatened offensive by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Mexico’s most wanted man, was described by U.S. officials as being highly unusual, given that his associates have avoided violent confrontations with American law-enforcement officers and have kept their blood feuds with fellow traffickers mostly south of the border. (Chicago Tribune)