-Caveat Lector-
 Farmers turn to opium poppies in Sierra Madre
Monica Medel, EFE - 9/3/2002
BASE VELASQUEZ, Guerrero - The western Sierra Madre
Mountains, long a source of inspiration for writers and an area synonymous with
gold prospecting, now offer a new found wealth: opium poppies.
Hidden among the farthest reaches of the mountains'
pines, cypresses and brush, opium poppies, the raw material for heroin, has
become a fast ticket to prosperity for the area's impoverished residents.
Poppy fields have sprouted up "in most of the
highlands of (the states of) Guerrero, Durango, Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Nayarit"
in western Mexico, regional army commander Gen. Audomaro Martinez told
reporters.
The seedpod of the Papaver somniferum is the source
of opium, as well as all its derivatives, namely heroin, morphine and codeine.
Poppies are being planted throughout the region in
tiny plots measuring less than 3,000 square meters (32,000 square feet) at
altitudes of between 1,500-2,500 meters (4,900-8,200 feet), together with corn
and marijuana to camouflage the blooms.
The small poppy fields, which are tucked away in
hard-to-reach areas amid difficult terrain, must be spotted by helicopter or
plane and then reached by foot, since spraying from the air is not feasible.
To destroy a small crop, anti-drug agents have to
walk long distances along footpaths while bearing the equipment needed to kill
the illegal crops.
The army conducts 45-day poppy eradication
campaigns every two months, with the help of 385 bases employed exclusively for
that purpose. Another 450 bases work to prevent the crops from coming down the
mountains and being distributed.
This year alone, 106,698 poppy and 122,299
marijuana fields - spread over 17,852 hectares (44,000 acres) of land - have
been destroyed. Authorities have also seized 45 kilos of heroin, 404 kilos of
poppy pods, 35.3 kilos of opium gum and 342.4 tons of marijuana.
Although Mexico plays a small role in the global
opium market which is controlled primarily by Afghanistan, Burma, Laos and
increasingly Colombia, the rapid proliferation of poppy fields here, as well as
the increasing use of the extensive northern border to smuggle opium-based
narcotics into the United States, have anti-drug authorities concerned.
The majority of the world's opium poppies are grown
in the dry, warm and narrow 4,500-mile stretch of mountains extending across
southern Asia from Turkey through Pakistan and Laos. Seeds planted in July and
August there yield poppies ready for harvest in December.
But the temperate Sierra Madre Occidental climate
in the southern state of Guerrero makes opium harvests possible year round,
providing producers with a continual source of the raw material needed to make
heroin.
A hectare (2.5 acres) of poppies produces eight
kilos of opium gum, which in turn can produce a kilo of heroin that can be sold
for several thousand dollars, a virtual fortune for the area's farmers.
About three months after the poppy seeds are
planted, brightly colored flowers bloom. As the petals fall away, an egg-shaped
seed pod is exposed which when cut open produces an opaque, milky sap that
quickly turns black, dries and forms opium gum.
Mainly women and children due to the delicateness
of the process perform the harvest, army officials told the press.
The opium gum is later processed in labs hidden in
central Mexico.
The same criminal organizations that control
Mexico's cocaine trade also smuggle heroin into the U.S.: the Tijuana, Juarez
and Gulf cartels, all of which grew in strength following the demise of
Colombia's Cali and Medellin cartels.
The U.S. State Department fact sheet on drug
production issued last March said Mexico had become one of the main sources of
heroin, amphetamines and marijuana for the U.S., as well as the corridor through
which more than half of the cocaine sold on U.S. streets is smuggled. Send this
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