After what Mexican officials called the worst drought in Mexican history, pushing most farmers — especially Indigenous Raramuri — into extreme poverty, Vice reports that the Sinaloa Cartel seized water resources as a lucrative new business. Using water trucks, pipelines and an army of lookouts, the cartel is siphoning water from all bodies of water in the mountains of the northern state of Chihuahua.
As part of the business, the cartel wants to keep its weed and poppy fields irrigated and to be the broker that supplies water to farmers, hotels and other local businesses that have been left dry. Last summer, Chihuahua state declared that 100 percent of the crops in the state were “completely lost” for the first time because of climate change, leaving more than 22,000 local farmers in extreme poverty.