How One of Mexico's Biggest Cartels Is Bloodying Up Your Margaritas

Mexico’s notorious Jalisco New Generation Cartel has created a special task force dedicated exclusively to extorting lime farmers in southern Mexico, according to local news reports.

The unit, called Fuerzas Especiales Limón (Lime Special Forces), even has its own logo: a yellow lime with a white skull at the center and two shotguns crossed behind. 

Mexico is currently the second biggest lime exporter in the world, with around 900,000 tons a year, 90 percent of which is exported to the U.S., according to Mexico’s Agricultural Department. The industry is one of the major economic motors of the southern Mexican state of Michoacán. Millions of the limes from Michoacán end up juicing tacos and margaritas in bars and restaurants across the U.S. 

Organized crime taxes lime production as a form of extortion, limiting the harvest to manipulate the price and then demanding a percentage of the profits. Those who fail to comply with the feared cartel’s demands risk being killed. 

Some accounts pointed to Audias Flores Silva, known as “El Jardinero,” as the leader of the new lime extortion group. Flores Silva has been flagged by the DEA as a major drug trafficker in Mexico. He likely reports to drug lord Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho”, the founder of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and one of the DEA’s most-wanted with a $10 million dollar bounty on his head.

A source inside a branch of the CJNG in Michoacán told VICE News that the new group uses the proceeds from lime extortion to help fund its war against rival cartel Los Caballeros Templarios, or the Knights Templar. 

During the first week of September several videos and photos of the new group began appearing on social media, showing convoys of heavily armed foot soldiers wearing the Lime Special Forces logos.

Although the extortion against lime and avocado farmers has been happening for over a decade in Michoacán, the creation of a new group highlights the revenue CJNG is making out of that criminal market. Lime farming is one of the major industries in the state, and a major provider of jobs. 

In July, farmers in Michoacán went on strike due to the level of illegal taxing applied by criminal organizations. Most of them returned back to harvesting limes in early October but increased the selling price by up to 30 percent to make up for the extortion fees. The average price of the lime in Mexico as of September was around 45 pesos (roughly $2.6) a kilo, according to Mexico’s Agricultural Department, an increase from the average price of 30 pesos ($1.7). 

The trend echoes the story of avocados, known as the “green gold,” in Michoacán. Nearly a million tons of avocado, valued at around $2.4 billion, are exported to the U.S. annually, every year, much of it from Michoacán. That production provides jobs and other economic benefits, but has also fed the coffers of organized crime, which often charges a tax on every kilo sold. 

In 2013, after several years of rule by the Knights Templar cartel, a cult-like criminal organization in Michoacán, local farmers, led by Hipólito Mora, rose up in arms. The creation of Mexico’s first self-defense movement, which made headlines around the world, was an attempt to push back on the stealing of land, kidnapping, and extortion dispensed by cartels. 

But in June, Mora was finally killed after years of threats against his life. He was shot several times and then set on fire  as he drove his pickup truck back home from his avocado farm in Michoacán. His brother has vowed to continue the fight against organized crime in Michoacán.