Knights Templar Drug Cartel Led The Way In Iron Ore Bonanza In Michoacán Port

Animal Politico reported on Thursday that as federal forces in Mexico continue their several-month-long occupation of the port city of Lázaro Cárdenas, in the southwestern state of Michoacán, details emerge on the extent to which the Knights Templar drug cartel dominated trade in the region, especially in the iron ore industry. Illegal mining in the ore-rich region spiked over recent years as the Templars operated with greater impunity and consolidated trade links with Chinese companies. And with the gang making as much as 1 million pesos (or about $77K) per day off illegal mining, local chamber of commerce head Benjamín Rodríguez told the site, even those unaffiliated with the Templars could get in on the bonanza.

“All of a sudden the Chinese came looking for iron,” Rodríguez said. “They would buy it from the lowest bidder, and there was as much organized crime in it as those who were acting legally. The gangs really opened the doors, and in the end even people who lived on ejidos [communal lands farmed by individuals] would say that if there’s a material on my land, it’s mine, even though they belong to the nation and require concessions to mine."

The Mexican government has since gone about closing up illegal mines; the port itself is occupied by the military, whose soldiers are swapped in and out of the region to prevent corruption from taking root among them. In March, officials seized some 119,000 tons of iron ore in a raid of a storage facility there, and in April the city’s mayor was arrested on charges including kidnapping, extortion and links to organized crime. But some residents lament the hit to the local economy as the flow of wealth stemming from iron ore trade wanes. Some have reportedly gone so far as to try to keep citizen militias operating in the area from searching for Knights Templar leaders (though militia spokesmen say they were acting under duress from the gang).