Mexico one of world's top 3 opium growers: report

Mexico is one of the world's top three producers of opium poppy crops, planting up to 28,000 hectares a year, local media cited a report as reporting on Wednesday.

"The country has the capacity to produce from 21,000 to 28,000 hectares annually," the daily El Universal reported, citing data from a joint report by the Mexican government and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC).

Only Afghanistan and Myanmar produce more, the daily Reforma said.

According to Antonio Mazzitelli, UNDOC's regional representative, while Mexico has been known to produce opium since at least 120 years ago, this is the first official national report on the illicit activity, El Universal said.

Poppy cultivation is mainly centered in Mexico's so-called drug-producing Golden Triangle, comprised of the northern states of Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Durango, though the southern state of Guerrero is another production center, the report says.

To a lesser extent, poppy is also cultivated in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Michoacan and Oaxaca.

The study, which relied mainly on satellite imagery gathered between July 2014 and June 2015, did not detect opium crops in other states, "but that does not necessarily mean they are poppy free," the report noted.

The goal of the study is "to strengthen the Mexican government's technical capacity to detect illicit crops with high precision, which will allow it to develop comprehensive public policies to combat the supply and demand of drugs," the report added. Enditem