>>6045388 /lb
Great point, anon. Very interesting article.
https://lflank.wordpress.com/2016/07/08/avacados-and-the-mexican-drug-cartels/
In 2010 Moreno was killed in a cartel dispute, and La Familia collapsed, leaving a power vacuum that was quickly filled by other cartels, each vying for control. After a period of vicious street fighting, a group that called itself the Caballeros Templarios, the “Knights Templar”, headed by Servando “La Tuta” Gomez, rose to the top. Like their Familia predecessors, the Templarios quickly came to dominate the local and state government as well as the police and judiciary, through a policy of “silver or lead”: authorities were first offered generous bribes (the “silver”), and if they did not cooperate they or one of their family members were shot in the streets (the “lead”).
In addition to controlling the production and distribution of marijuana, cocaine and heroin in Michoacán (most of which goes to the US), the Templarios also muscled in on local industries–and the rapidly-expanding avocado industry was a prime target.
The avocado industry alone is estimated to provide the Templarios with at least $150 million a year.
With as many as 100,000 people working for it, the Templarios cartel is almost a state unto itself. It is larger, richer and more powerful than any local government, and through bribery and violent intimidation it controls the police and courts, and now owns about ten percent of all the avocado orchards in Michoacán.