A gold mine in Mexico was taken over by the sons of the drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Mexican officials and generals said they would help an American businessman reclaim the mine — after hefty bribes.

For one man, reclaiming the mine was more than a business proposition. It was a reckoning with his past and a chance to pay back the orphanage that raised him.

LA CIÉNEGA, Mexico — Barreling down the highway at 100 mph, a convoy of state police vehicles blew through speed bumps as it entered a small town in the Sonoran desert. Blasting over them was hell, but Alejandro Sánchez knew that slowing down was too risky: Here, locals call them “death bumps,” because reducing your speed gives cartel snipers a better chance of taking you out.

Sánchez and the officers protecting him had l

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