Your Avocado Toast Is Funding a Paramilitary Force

David Bruns
Jun 26
2 min read

*Photo of avocado harvesting courtesy of EL PAIS*

The Venn diagram of avocados and opium

The Mexican state of Michoacán produces roughly 80% of the avocados imported into the United States, around $3 billion annually. Here’s something you probably didn’t know: the environmental conditions required to grow high-yield avocados—volcanic soil, altitude, and climate—just happen to overlap with the mountainous strongholds of Mexico’s most violent cartels.

Historically, cartels in western Mexico cultivated opium poppies to produce heroin for the U.S. market. However, the rise of synthetic fentanyl completely collapsed the U.S. demand for traditional heroin.

Suddenly, cartels found themselves with heavily armed forces but little revenue from their traditional business models. To offset these losses, groups like the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), La Nueva Familia Michoacana, and Los Viagras pivoted to extorting the booming, legal agricultural markets in their backyards.

Modern cartels are no longer "drug" organizations.

They are diversified conglomerates. They extort massive legal industries, including avocado farming, lime orchards, other forms of agriculture, logging, real estate, and illegal gold mining, effectively taxing Mexico’s legitimate economy.

A few weeks ago, we talked about how Mexican cartels play a critical role in our soon-to-be-released novel, Alpha Strike.

The part of this real-life crisis that we want to explore is not how the cartels have expanded their wealth and influence, but what they’re doing with that newfound wealth.

In short, they’ve become non-state actors, sometimes as powerful as the countries they inhabit.

Mexican cartels are classic examples of armed non-state actors because they hold immense power entirely outside legitimate, recognized governmental systems. Legally and politically, they do not possess sovereignty. They can’t sign international treaties, and they hold no standing in organizations like the United Nations. On the other hand, they can challenge the government’s monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force.

When a Mexican cartel controls a town, they tax local businesses through extortion. They become a criminal shadow government that dictates the rules of daily life without ever legally being “the state.”

Since they recognize no borders, the cartels go where their business takes them, which is exactly what happens in Alpha Strike.

A crime boss with a tragic history…

Our cartel boss is Bonita Ophelia Obando Morales, nicknamed Boom. (The nickname is more than just an acronym. It’s a lifestyle.)

Boom is at the peak of her power, the head of an international crime syndicate and seemingly untouchable…until her beloved nephew is captured by the US Drug Enforcement Agency.

So we asked this question:

How far would a woman with unlimited financial resources, legions of sicarios, and severe anger management issues go to regain her family?

You’re about to find out…the answer is not pretty.