Since September 2024, homicides, femicides, and vehicle thefts have been on the rise amid the drug war.
2025 ended with a record 39,008 crimes, the highest incidence since the State Attorney General’s Office began keeping records; it finished as the third most violent year for homicides and the second for femicides.
Since September 2024, homicides, femicides, and vehicle thefts have been on the rise due to the split within the Sinaloa Cartel that sparked a war between the Chapos and the Mayos.
According to statistics from the State Attorney General’s Office available since 1993, crime reached record levels last year.
The 39,008 crimes committed in 2025 represent a 16 percent increase compared to 2024, when 33,451 crimes were committed, and a 20 percent increase compared to 2023, before the legal dispute began, when 32,248 crimes were recorded.
Crime rates in Sinaloa had reached a record high in 2011 during the administration of Mario López Valdez, when 36,845 crimes were committed, but in 2025, the administration of Rubén Rocha Moya surpassed that figure.
According to the Sinaloa State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), last year 10 of the 12 crimes considered to have a high social impact and high incidence saw increases, but intentional homicides, femicides, and vehicle theft experienced the most significant rises.
Intentional homicides increased by 66 percent from 2024 to 2025, femicides rose from 31 to 72 cases, representing a 132 percent increase; and vehicle theft increased by 69 percent, from 4,019 in 2024 to 6,818 last year.
Data from the Attorney General’s Office (FGE) shows that 2025 was the third most violent year for intentional homicides, after 2010, with 2,250, and 2011, with 1,906 murders.
June saw 207 homicides, making it the most violent month since April 2011, when 227 homicides were committed.
June 30 was the most violent day since the conflict between the Chapos and Mayos began, with 30 murders recorded. In the early hours of that day, four people were found hanging from the bridge leading to the Diocesan Seminary of Culiacán, 16 more were found in a van abandoned next to the bridge, and 10 other people were murdered in different locations.
In terms of femicides, 2025 ended as the second deadliest year on record, after 2017 when 87 femicides were committed; and intentional injuries reached the highest number since records began, with 3,903 cases.
The statistics from the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) only include the crime of kidnapping and indicate that 1,316 cases were committed last year; data for previous years is not available.
A November report from the State Public Security Council indicates that the crimes of kidnapping and enforced disappearance, committed by private individuals, totaled 2,150 by that month, representing a 51 percent increase compared to the same period in 2024.
The municipalities where the conflict between factions is concentrated experienced the largest increases in crime.
In San Ignacio, crimes increased by 68 percent, rising from 94 in 2024 to 158 in 2025; in Cosalá, they rose by 54 percent; in Concordia, by 44 percent; in Navolato, by 37 percent; in Culiacán, by 19 percent; and in Mazatlán, by 17 percent.
In the case of Culiacán, the crimes considered by the FGE as high-impact, which include femicide, intentional homicide, manslaughter, bank robbery, kidnapping and rape, closed with 1,300 cases, 39 percent more than in 2024, the highest figure for the municipality since the FGE has been keeping records.
