Support for LAist comes from
Become a sponsor
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Donate
Stay Connected

LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, a member-supported public media network.

Audience-funded nonprofit news
Listen
Donate
Podcasts Take Two
Mexican drug cartels and the avocado business
solid orange rectangular banner
()
Take Two Logo
Dec 5, 2013
Listen • 4:58
Mexican drug cartels and the avocado business
Like many businesses in the violence-plagued Mexican state of Michoacan, the avocado growing industry has become intertwined with powerful drug cartels.
Avocados are sold at Tegucigalpa's main fruit and vegetable market El Mayoreo, on June 18, 2011.
Avocados being sold in a Mexican market
(
ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images
)

Like many businesses in the violence-plagued Mexican state of Michoacan, the avocado growing industry has become intertwined with powerful drug cartels.

Like many businesses in the violence-plagued Mexican state of Michoacán, the avocado growing industry has become intertwined with powerful drug cartels.

The majority of the avocados that make their way to our supermarkets come from this region of Mexico, and the area become devastated by drug wars. They have become so pervasive that they control almost all facets of life there, including the booming avocado industry. 

Sylvia Longmire, author of "Cartel: The Coming Invasion of Mexico's Drug Wars," joins the show to talk about how gangs have taken control of this popular crop.