Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

Video Credit: CEN/@l4nd3t4

This is the moment an avocado businessman is shot to death in his car as Mexican organised criminals aim for a slice of the trade.

The incident took place in the municipality of Uruapan, in the western Mexican state of Michoacan when the victim, named in reports as Carlos, 50, arrived home in his van.

The victim, who was reportedly a businessman working in the farming and sale of avocados, was reportedly sitting in the driver’s seat of the van and in the video a gunman can be seen walking up to the window and opening fire before walking away.

Local media reported that the man was shot four times in the chest and once more in the head.

Public Security officers cordoned off the area as experts collected evidence and talked with witnesses in order to try to identify the suspect, who remains unidentified and has not been arrested.

Michoacan is the leading Mexican state for the exportation of avocado to the United States, Canada, France and Japan, with more than 912,000 tonnes per year being grown over 215,000 hectares, Mexican authorities reported.

Local media report criminal organisations are working to move into the industry, extorting businessmen and trying to control land.

Local media reported that Michoacan is also an area where drug cartels, such as Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, La Familia Michoacana (Michoacan Family) and Los Viagras, among others, are trying to diversify their activities and are extorting producers in order to gain control of the farming and exportation of avocado to the United States.

La Familia Michoacana is a criminal organisation working in drug trafficking. Their main rivals are the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion while they count the Sinaloa Cartel, previously led by Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, among their allies.

Los Viagras are based on Michoacan too and have signed alliances with the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion and La Familia Michoacana.

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