Federal Police Destroy More Than 15M Poppy Plants in the Mountains of Guerrero Dennis A. Garcia - El Universal
go to original August 14, 2017

As more US states legalize marijuana, dropping prices are forcing growers to turn to other sources of income. In the Mexican state of Guerrero, the new crop is opium poppies - for the production of heroin, a profitable business for local drug cartels. (DW News)

Roughly 133 acres (54 hectares) were destroyed in the third day of the joint operation between the Federal Police and the National Security Commission of Mexico.

The State of Guerrero is a war zone for the drug cartels, and a joint operation was coordinated to destroy the poppy fields in the region, with elements of the Federal Forces Division being supported by a Black Hawk chopper.

The helicopter searched for hillsides in the mountains covered by huge amounts of bright red flowers, the characteristic color of the plant used to make drugs such as heroin. After spotting the right area, the other operatives arrived by land at the location and began the cutting and incineration operations.

With this intervention, the Federal Forces Division of the Mexican Federal Police has destroyed in just three days more than 15 million poppy plants across 100 hectares (247 acres) of mountain ranges.

... Criminal organizations such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and cells of the Michoacan Family, the Knights Templar, Los Ardillos, and Los Tequileros are in constant dispute for the control of the mountain range in Guerrero, which houses the poppy fields used to extract opium gum, which is then processed into heroin.

A report presented last year prepared by the Mexican Government and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) states that 28 thousand hectares (69,190 acres) of poppy plants are sowed every year in the country, which makes Mexico the top three producer worldwide.

Read the rest at El Universal

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