4 Cartels Threaten Avocado Farmers w Extortion
Every day at least four trucks are stolen full of fruit in that state. In addition, theft of avocado crops swarms. From: InSight Crime:
Four rival drug cartels extort money from avocado growers in Michoacán, Mexico, a sample of how this fruit is becoming more important as a source of illicit income in the context of the evolution of criminal dynamics in the state.The Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), the La Familia Michoacana Nueva, the Cartel de Tepalcatepec and the Cartel de Zicuirán participate in this buoyant criminal economy, according to the attorney general of Michoacán. Michoacán produces more than 80% of Mexico's avocados, with annual exports worth about US $ 2.4 billion, which have earned the fruit the nickname "green gold".
The cartels charge a monthly fee for protection to avocado producers, which is calculated based on the hectares cultivated or the kilograms exported. Those who do not make the payments can be kidnapped or killed. A farmer's daughter was recently killed at his doorstep, the Cartels steal at least four trucks full of fruit in that state every day, so says The Guardian.
The competition for these criminal gains has motivated a wave of violence that currently plagues the state of Michoacánand especially Uruapan:In August of this year, 2019, 19 people were massacred in the city of Uruapan, the center of the avocado industry in Michoacán. And their bodies were exhibited in three different points of the city. The authorities linked the heinous act to a territorial war between the CJNG and Los Viagras, armed wing of the La Familia Michoacán, for the control of the city's criminal economies.Extortion to avocado growers in Michoacán is not new, but rather a resurgence, which reflects how there is a boom in the profitability of that activity, while weakening other criminal economies in the state. Michoacán and its neighboring Guerrero have long been places coveted by criminal groups, such as centers of heroin production in Mexico.But the rise of synthetic opioids has caused a collapse in the price of opium to less than a third of its value in 2017, which left drug cartels moving through alternative sources of income.Avocado extortion in parallel, the avocado industry in Mexico has quadrupled its value over the last decade, due to the growing popularity of fruit in the United States and Europe. The country's avocado exports to the US market grew 16 % between 2018 and 2019. ...MORE
Borderland Beat has been on this particular story since at least 2013's:
In August the story was:
Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat from Reforma
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| Body lies next to hamburger stand--and hanging above |
Avocado businessmen and restaurant and bar owners asked the CJNG for help through WhatsApp chats to eliminate "Los Viagras", who extorted them.
Nine of the bodies - 7 men and 2 women - were hung on a vehicular bridge of the Industrial Boulevard, one of the main avenues of the city. Another seven bodies - 6 men and one woman - were thrown dismembered on that same avenue and others were left in black bags on the same boulevard.For years, extortion has ravaged producers in this area of Michoacán.Just on June 14 avocado packers in the entity reported that they Viagras were robbing four trucks per day with cargo.....
