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Really interesting article - highlights how the DEA were/are twisted into helping whichever cartel they're not targeting. Another pointless, expensive and violent fail in the war against drugs.
That's a plot point of the recent movie Sicario. (Highly recommended - it's the movie of the year for me.)
Why is it pointless? (real question) Also, something I'm not sure I get entirely is why violence is like the silver bullet of cartels? Necessary I get it, silver bullet? Why? What is calculated violence?
It's pointless because we spend billions of dollars and compromise our own morality (see: all the killers they let walk) to put away one group, only to watch another group immediately spring up and be just as bad, if not worse. And this isn't a new trend, but a multi-decade pattern at this point. And all of this - the violence, the retribution, the lives ruined, the money thrown away, multiple countries turned into war zones - is a result of our insane drug laws. It didn't have to be like this, but we made it this way.

And calculated violence is violence used to make a point. The guy they beat to death until his body was "like a bag of ice" was killed to stop his investigations, but also to scare off other investigators.

I see what you mean. It's because of the way we handle drugs that this extreme violence happens. Very interesting.
Interesting detail: the cartel guy is wearing a kevlar when arrested. Odds must be the guy could shot right here.