In Michoacán, three storage places of the Sabritas company, which makes potato chips, were burned down in three different places in the state. One does not need much imagination to see this as a case where "protection money" was likely not paid, or was deemed insufficient - one of the oldest mafia practices in the book, far predating the advent of drug trafficking. Hence, "mafia," not "drug cartels."
Source:
Se incendian tres bodegas de Sabritas en Michoacán. El Universal, May 27, 2012.
I agree that "cartel" has always been misleading (cartels collude in price-fixing, not kill each other for market shares), but "mafia" is already taken in Mexico. As in AMLO's "La mafia que se adueno de Mexico" and "La Mafia Nos Robo la Presidencia". AMLO isn't the only one who uses it... my neighbors used to refer to the upper middle class fraccionamento next to my colonia as the place where the mafias lived... meaning union and party managers and other boss-types. Maybe something basic like "gangsters" works better.
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