Security Forces Arrest Drone Operators in Apatzingán, Michoacán

By "El Huaso" for Borderland Beat

In three operations, Mexican security forces captured three criminals who used drones and explosives to extort local lime farmers, and seized a narco camp in Apatzingán, Michoacán. Apatzingán is the municipality with the highest number of IEDs in Mexico.

According to Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch, the three men, captured in Cenobio Moreno, Apatzingán, were members of criminal cell who used drone deployed explosives and extorted lime growers. After a search, authorities found two-way radios, drone controllers, drugs, and a homemade gun.

Just outside Apatzingán, in La Huerta, Secretariat of Public Security forces also located a destroyed a narco camp overlooking lime fields. In addition to finding hammocks, food, and a sack of a granular white material, which appears to be Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), a powerful synthetic explosive commonly used in mining.

Less than two kilometers away from the narco camp, security forces found 15 homemade IEDs made to be dropped from drones.

Michoacán is the IED capitol of Mexico, with the large majority of explosive usage and seizures. 

Sources: La Voz de Michoacan, SSP MICHOACÁN Twitter, El Universal, Animal Politico, Acueducto Online, InSight Crime