Killing of 20: Avocado, bar, restaurant, businessmen, asked CJNG through WhatsApp chats for help eliminating Viagras

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat from Reforma

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.

"We respectfully communicate that it is impossible to continue facing losses, as well as the strong economic impact that this generates," they said in their statement.

Authorities said that between 2011 and 2013, this criminal practice left profits of more than 1.5 billion pesos a year, mainly in Uruapan, Tancítaro and Peribán.

Graphic image below

Last February the CJNG announced in narcomantas its arrival in Uruapan, supposedly before the fatigue of avocado producers and businessmen who were extorted by "Los Viagras".

The wrongful killings in Uruapan have skyrocketed in recent months. From January to June, 113 murders were recorded, 52 percent more than those reported in the same period of 2018.

Kidnapping and extortion

Producers of "green gold" have accused organized crime of affecting the avocado market, to the extent of making the product more expensive.

Entrepreneurs of the National Alliance of Small Merchants revealed that the quotas/piso reach 100 thousand pesos per month, and in the case of large producers up to one million pesos, or else they are kidnapped.

The Association of Producers and Packers Exporters of Avocado of Mexico (Apeam), the Union of Packers and Marketers of Avocado of Michoacán (Udecam) and the Association of Packers of Peribán, have also complained of the constant attacks and robberies, and at the same time required from the authorities of the three levels of government that serve that sector.

They said that every day they are victims of robberies and lose up to four trucks loaded with the fruit during the journey from the orchards to the packing areas on the roads of that state.

Bodies left on ground were decapitated and dismembered

At different stages, several criminal groups have laid their foundations in this region.

In September 2006, La Familia Michoacana arrived with the throwing  of five human heads inside a city bar.

In 2011 the leaders of the La Familia Michoacana were fragmented and the Knights Templar emerged, which were depleted by "Los Viagras" in 2013 with the support of the Rural Force created by Alfredo Castillo, former commissioner for state security.