Michoacán: CJNG Uses Lemon Orchards As Training Grounds

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Inhabitants of the Tierra Caliente  region claim that armed people with their faces covered enter the orchards every day.

Tepalcatepec, a municipality located more than 250 kilometers from the Michoacan capital and considered one of the state's main lemon producers, is also home to camps used by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) to train its hired killers.

"The whole town knows about it, but nobody talks about it," said a resident of Tepalcatepec, who said that every day he sees men of different ages with large-caliber weapons on board pickup trucks, leaving the town and taking dirt roads to reach the lemon orchards.

"They say that's where they train," added the young man, who asked not to be named for security reasons. "They have our phones tapped," he explained in short phrases sent via WhatsApp.

"There are a lot of people in the team (the CJNG) trying to learn, and they say there are also good instructors (...). Then, in the distance, you hear the thunder of gunfire."

The young man said that it is difficult to live in his community, because it is not uncommon to find "people from the team" in local stores stocking up on food. "We don't turn around to face them," but "even if we try not to see, we know they're there.

The Cuartoscuro photo journalism agency went into the heart of the area to document the training of the gunmen. Armed men and women, their faces covered, prepare for war in Michoacán's lemon-producing zone, which includes the municipalities of Apatzingán, Buenavista, Parácuaro, Aguililla, Tepalcatepec and Múgica.

At least 600,000 of the 670,000 tons of lemons produced annually in the state are produced there.

"We have been suffering from 10 years of insecurity," said Bernardo Bravo, president of the National Committee of the Lemon Product System, who said that what is happening now is minimal to what happened a few years ago.

Currently the roads are open, we have mobility. Until a few months ago you could not move from the towns of Coalcoman to Aguililla or Tepalcatepec.

Regarding the production of lemon, he said that currently there is no theft of the product, since there is a high surplus, "it is not worth anything, why steal it.

He explained that producing a kilo of lemon costs an average of eight pesos and currently the market price is five, so producers prefer to let it spoil in the trees than pay to cut it off.

The producer refused to talk about the criminal camps in this area; "we are working well".

This is not the first time in Michoacán that there has been talk of training camps operating in areas that are difficult to access or located in orchards.

Earlier this year, the Attorney General's Office (FGR) announced that in Quiroga, a municipality located approximately 50 kilometers from Morelia, it had detained ten individuals, alleged members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. 

The capture was recorded in an avocado orchard that had been taken over as a camp.

Among those arrested were six people from Jalisco and three women.

The nine were caught in possession of five AR-15 weapons, three AK-47s, a 45 mm caliber pistol, nine magazines of different calibers and 420 rounds. 

They were also found with doses of drugs known as crystal meth and five packets of marijuana; tactical equipment and a Dodge Durango vehicle, which had a theft report dated September 1, 2021.

El Sol de Morelia