Cartels ventures into coca production in Mexico

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Before, coca was not produced outside of Bolivia, Colombia and Peru; countries with optimal climatic conditions and height for plant growth

Prosecutors deny having figures on detainees; intelligence is unaware of the issue.

No description available.

The drug cartels in Mexico have begun to experiment with the cultivation of coca leaves, from which through chemical process cocaine is obtained, one of the drugs that generate the highest profits for organized crime worldwide. However, despite the fact that production areas have recently been discovered in Guerrero, the authorities do not record arrests of people for these cases.

On February 17, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador revealed in his morning press conference that in the Sierra de Guerrero he was “experimenting with coca cultivation.”

We are investigating this. We found some coca plantations in Atoyac, ”said the president.

The Mexican Army confirmed to El Economista, via transparency, that there were six coca crops that were eradicated in the municipality of Atoyac de Álvarez, Guerrero. In this entity, it is appropriate to mention, the Mexican authorities have a record of the operation of at least four organized crime groups: the Pacific Cartel, La Familia, the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), and Guerreros Unidos.

However, Atoyac de Álvarez is part of the CJNG’s main area of ​​influence.

Data was requested, also via information requests, on whether there are people detained for the crops in Atoyac de Álvarez from the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), the Guerrero State Attorney’s Office, the National Defense Secretariat (Sedena), and to the Guerrero Public Security Secretariat.

Narcos mexicanos incursionan en el cultivo y producción de coca – Las  Noticias de Chihuahua – Entrelíneas

The four institutions denied having information on people apprehended in this case.

The FGR indicated, through official letter FGR / UTAG / DG / 002307/2021, that the administrative unit “derived from an exhaustive and reasonable search in its files, stated that it had no information in this regard.”

The Sedena referred, for its part, that “regarding the people detained in the eradication of plantations (…) after having carried out a search in the General Staff of the National Defense, no documentary evidence was found that could give an answer to your requirements ”.

He pointed out that the database kept by the Army on the detention of people does not allow the circumstances in which they were apprehended to be identified.

The Secretary of Defense reported, in turn, that the first case of eradication of a coca crop in Mexico occurred in September 2014, in the municipality of Tuxtla Chico, in Chiapas.

In this entity, the Mexican government currently has the presence of three criminal organizations: the Gulf Cartel, the CJNG, and Guerrero Unidos. However, in 2014, there were records of an important operation of the Los Zetas Cartel in the entity.  

No CNI data

The National Intelligence Center (CNI) was asked to report on whether it had studied on coca cultivation in Mexico, as well as those involved in it.

However, the civil intelligence body that, recurrently classifies the information in its possession as national security, referred on this occasion in response to the request with folio: 041000005021 that said information “is not the responsibility of the National Center for Intelligence”.

For Erubiel Tirado, coordinator of the National Security and Democracy Program at the Ibero-American University, the eradication of coca crops means that “we would be in the presence of signs of the evolution of this illegal activity in Mexico.”

For her part, Eunice Rendón, a security specialist, commented that organized crime has been expanding in the country in different branches that range from the production of new drugs to interference in politics at the local level.

Source: eleconomista.com.mx, cnnespanol.cnn.com

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