Mexico has sent 660 soldiers and militarized National Guard officers to the western state of Michoacan to protect lime growers who complained they were suffering extortion demands by cartels. The Defense Department said Thursday that since the start of President Claudia Sheinbaum's administration on Oct. 1, it has sent 300 soldiers and 360 Guard officers to several lime-growing townships. In August, more than half of lime packing warehouses in the lowlands of Michoacan closed temporarily after growers and distributors said they had received demands from the Los Viagras and other cartels for a cut of their income.
The department said the troops were visiting packing houses, escorting trucks transporting the fruit, and providing security at wholesale markets in the main producing areas around the towns of Apatzingan, Aguililla, and Buenavista. It said that in just over a week, the troops deployed to Michoacan had seized 10 guns and two grenades, the AP reports. Limes are a staple of Mexican cuisine. The Michoacan state government acknowledged the producers' shutdowns in August, but claimed it was largely because growers were unhappy with the prices they were getting.
While limes might seem to be an odd target for drug cartels, they have been a source of income for the gangs for much of this century. In 2013, lime growers founded and led Mexico's biggest vigilante movement. Cartels at the time had taken control of distribution, manipulating domestic prices for crops like avocados and limes, telling growers when they could harvest and at what price they could sell their crops.
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