蜜芽传媒

The former head of a Mexican vigilante group that challenged the power of the drug cartels has been killed in the state of Michoac谩n.

Hip贸lito Mora, a lime farmer, and at least three of his security guards were killed as they were driving in his hometown, La Ruana.

Mexican media say they were shot many times by unknown gunmen, who then set their vehicle on fire.

Mr Mora had been part of a self-defence group of civilians who took up arms in 2013 to defend their farms from a criminal gang called the Knights Templar who were charging extortion money from lime and avocado producers in the region.

Ioan Grillo is a journalist and author who spoke regularly to Mr Mora for his book called, Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields, and the New Politics of Latin America. He told Newsday, Mr Mora successfully toppled the Knights Templar but it came at a cost: 鈥淭hese days you see the vigilante-type people manning checkpoints, you don鈥檛 really know if they鈥檙e genuine farmers defending their crops or actually drug traffickers themselves鈥�When you bring down one cartel it creates a vacuum so other cartels came in including two other groups, one called the Jalisco New Generation cartel and one bizarrely called the Viagras鈥�(Mr Mora) was critical of both, he was caught in the middle.鈥�

(Picture: Shows a framed photo of Hip贸lito Mora on his coffin. Credit: Ivan Arias / Reuters.)

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