Mexican Navy Intercepts Chinese Ship with 68,000 Tons of Cartel Iron Ore

The State of Michoacán in southwestern Mexico is almost in civil war.  The Knights Templar drug cartel, a remnant of La Familia Michoacán, is being attacked by self-defense forces, and the Mexican Army.  The Knights Templar had almost unlimited de facto control over the State for years.  When the population rose up initially, there was the question of what would cause otherwise law-abiding people to take up gun against an organized criminal enterprise.  The answer came out, in part, when the Mexican government captured Knights Templar operatives with a refrigerated van full of teenagers who were kidnapped and being held for organ harvesting. Seriously, see here.  The cartels were kidnapping children to harvest their organs. And there were reports of the cartel thugs coming into towns to steal girls to send north as prostitutes.  (See here)

 

Iron ore mine in Michoacan

The Mexican army got involved late last year, somewhat tentatively, then for real early this year.  In December, we posted commentary on an article linking the cartel to theft of iron ore, shipping the iron ore to China, and the cartel receiving the precursor chemicals for methamphetamine back.  (see here)  

The second largest port in the country is in Michoacán state, and it had apparently been put under the control of the cartel.  While the story may have seemed like hyperbole, it was not.  Last week, the Mexican navy stopped a Chinese freight ship coming out of that same port with 68,000  tons of iron ore with no legitimate source documents. See here, BBC article. 

The government has, since January, seized 200,000 tons of iron ore from cartel controlled mines. The iron ore had come from a Cartel controlled mine and was being sold on the black market to Chinese buyers.  There is obviously no tax being paid on this iron ore.  The natural resources of the country are being pillaged and sold overseas.

Michoacán State was the site of the first outbreak of the drug war in Mexico a decade ago.  It also stopped there for a time until the self-defense forces sprang up.  There may be many reasons that the government got involved.  The two primary ones seem to be that the government realized that the people were protecting themselves and all-out civil war was about to start, and that the cartel was actually pillaging the countryside, taking resources and not paying taxes on it.  It’s anyone’s guess which of those cause the government to act.