A decade after vigilante uprising, extortion and threats against lime growers return to west Mexico

The kind of mass threats and extortion of lime growers in the western Mexico that sparked a civilian vigilante uprising a decade ago have returned, and growers say they can’t get their crops to market. One lime grower who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons said Thursday that the local drug cartel had increased the price of protection payments five-fold in the space of weeks. The government of Michoacan state said Wednesday that it had launched a criminal investigation into the shake-downs.