How has El Patrón stolen the lives of all those living on his estate?

The House of Scorpion begins in a dystopian future, on a violence-torn strip of land between the United States and Mexico (known as Opium or “Dreamland”) ruled over by powerful and unnaturally long-lived drug lord El Patron. The protagonist, Matteo “Matt” Alacran, is in actuality a genetic clone of El Patron, and is slated to be harvested for his organs. El Patron has other genetic clones of people which he will harvest organs from.