Photo: RODRIGO ARANGUA / AFP / Getty Images
The largest center for food products that operates in Latin America and which is popularly known as the Central de Abastos, would also be used by criminal groups to store drugs.
According to official reports, some areas that make up the more than 300 hectares of the largest food products market based in Mexico City, would be being used by drug cartels that use them as a front to move large amounts of drugs before the complacent gaze of the authorities that ignore what is recorded in the more than 5 thousand security cameras in charge of monitoring both inside and in the immediate vicinity of the complex.
According to Proceso Magazine, some transnational cartels are dedicated to extorting winery owners, as as well as to the merchants under the threat of harming them if they do not pay them a certain amount on a recurring basis for what they call the floor right.
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Given the absence of a single search by the authorities in more than a decade , the weekly maintains that several of the trailers that enter and leave the Central de Abastos, far from transporting fruits and vegetables, are used for the transfer of drugs in a disguised manner , because on the roads none of these vehicles go through an adequate inspection that verifies the content of the loads, nor does the police of the capital of the country check the transport when it travels the streets.
“They control everything and there is no one who can help you; they rent some of our warehouses and nobody talks about that. The authorities don’t want to know and we don’t want to get in trouble; we work, we let them work and everything stays the same”, quotes a source to the publication, who for fear of reprisals asks to remain anonymous.
The attraction of the Central de Abasto is that it is estimated that operations for more than $9 billion dollars are carried out at its facilities per year, which represents a good distraction so that other types of illegal activities go unnoticed.
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