In the hearts of the people of Chichihualco beats a peculiar pride. A mark of prestige in the forgotten mountains of Guerrero. They boast that their two main products, which they export throughout Mexico and the world, possess a superior, unparalleled quality: soccer balls and opium poppies. “Here, the best soccer balls in the country are sewn by hand, and here grows the best ingredient in the world for making heroin,” said Hortencio Jiménez proudly, whom I met in 2024 on a trip to the poppy fields near Chilpancingo. “We are soccer and organized crime,” the taxi driver summarized masterfully,
