Violent crime stories and trends
As a state with major drug- and human-trafficking routes from Mexico to the United States, the state of Sonora, Mexico has had an element of violent crime for decades.
Violent crime typically did not involve those without cartel connections, especially visitors to the state.
That all changed in 2019. That year, levels of homicides increased dramatically in the state, to include killings of civic officials – police and city administrative officials.
And crime has increased in 2020. Violent shootings in previously peaceful towns like Magdalena de Kino. Drug interdiction in Northern Sonora, where federal police burned fields of poppies and marijuana near Imuris, just south of Nogales. And a violent homicide rate that jumped higher than last year’s records in cities like Ciudad Obregon and Hermosillo.
And the discovery of buried after-effects, as searching mothers found mass graves near Ciudad Obregon and Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point).
We do not cover every Sonora crime news story. Homicides occur every day in cities like Ciudad Obregon and Hermosillo and covering every one would be too time-consuming. Instead, we will post stories of larger crime incidents, events that may have an impact on your decision to visit Sonora.
To read tourism-related stories, click here.
The State Department recommends that you reconsider travel to Sonora because of crime. And we agree.
Sonora, Mexico Crime News
Searchers Find 38 Bodies in Sonora Killing Fields
All-female search group seeks closure for families Sonora Newspaper El Imparcial reports that in three outings that started on March 30, a group of female cadaver searchers calling themselves “Guerreras Buscadoras de Sonora” (Women Warrior Searchers of Sonora) has...
Hermosillo to Be Latest National Security Priority Area
Sonora newspaper El Imparcial reports that Hermosillo is the next security priority region in Mexico for federal authorities. The security enhancement will include the deployment of the Mexican National Guard to the city. The move to enhance security in Sonora was...
Armed Abduction of Three Kino Bay Residents
A bulletin issued by Municipal Public Safety of Hermosillo reports that three residents of Kino Bay, Sonora were kidnapped on Monday night. Two were located several hours later, and the whereabouts of the other man are unknown. At 9:10 p.m. on Monday, an armed group...
Armed Vehicle Robbery at Empalme “Only Sonora” Station
Sonora newspaper El Imparcial reported that two SUVs were stolen at gunpoint from tourist families in the early morning of last Friday outside the Only Sonora station in the municipality of Empalme. The tourists from the United States arrived at the station in the...
Police Commander Slain in Hermosillo
Local media reported that an Hermosillo municipal police commander was killed yesterday by gunfire in a vehicle on Villa Flores Street near his home in the Villa Dorada neighborhood of Hermosillo. His children, ages 15 and 16, were traveling with him and were able to...