Prominent politician among those killed
A prominent Magdalena politician, Luis Alfonso Robles, was one of the three killed in the assault. Robles had twice been the mayor of Magdalena, most recently from 2015 to 2018. He was currently an alderman for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Also killed were Norberto López Vázquez and one of the sicarios involved in the attack.
Police hunt other attackers
After the attack, police recovered weapons, ammunition and 10 vehicles at the scene.
State and military police began an intensive search for gunmen who had fled the tollbooth area, and they were able to locate a home in Colonia Fátima in the city of Magdalena where two of the other gunmen were located.
Elements from the Sonora State Public Security Police (PESP) and federal SEDENA agents (from the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense) engaged in a gunbattle with the gunmen at the residence.
Some of the agents were reported wounded, as well as one of the sicarios, who was taken into custody. The other sicario was killed in the exchange of gunfire. Both sicarios were armed with AK-47 rifles, known in Mexico as cuernos de chivos, or “goat horns”
Travel advisory
This violent, lethal event occurred in broad daylight along a public highway used by tourists to drive from Nogales to Hermosillo and other parts of Sonora.
It was not cartel-on-cartel violence, as far as we know. Tourists traveling near the scene, or caught in the crossfire, could have been seriously injured or killed.
Because of this, we do not recommend any travel in Sonora, with the possible exception of brief day trips across the border to visit border towns.
