Cartel War Seeks to Control Avocado Trade in Mexico
Bullet-filled bodies of nine people were found early Thursday morning hanging on a bridge decorated with avocado murals in Uruapan, Mexico, photos posted to Twitter showed. Next to the bodies, a white banner hung with a message threatening residents if they helped certain individuals they would end up like the victims on the bridge.....MORE
The banner, signed by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, also had another message: “Lovely people, carry on with your routines. Be patriotic and kill a Viagra,” it said, referring to members of the rival gang, Los Viagras.
Researcher told The Guardian that the escalating gang war over control of the drug market is extending to another lucrative business venture.
“The big magnet here is avocados,” Falko Ernst, a cartel researcher for the think tank International Crisis Group, told The Guardian.
In a paper published by Ernst for International Crisis Group, he writes that the avocado industry in the state of Michoacán, west of Mexico City and where Uruapan is located, is worth an estimated US$1.5 billion.
OCCRP reported in June that roughly 48 tons of avocados are stolen daily by gangs in Michoacán and roughly 80% of the US imports of avocados comes from the state....
