Abduction of Mexican mine workers raises doubts over touted security
improvements
[February 16, 2026]
By ÁARON IBARRA and MARÍA VERZA
CONCORDIA, Mexico (AP) — Deep in the coastal mountains above the
sparkling Pacific resort of Mazatlan, towns spaced along a twisting road
appear nearly deserted, the quiet broken only by the occasional passing
truck.
It was near one of these towns, Panuco, that 10 employees of a
Canadian-owned silver and gold mine were abducted in late January. The
bodies of five were located nearby and five more await identification.
Most residents of these towns have fled out of fear as two factions of
the Sinaloa Cartel have been locked in battle since September 2024, said
Fermín Labrador, a 68-year-old from the nearby village of Chirimoyos.
Others, he said, were “invited” to leave.
The abduction of the mine workers under still unclear circumstances has
raised fears locally and more widely generated questions about the
security improvements touted by President Claudia Sheinbaum. She
signaled her more aggressive stance toward drug cartels in Sinaloa with
captures and drug seizures after she took office in late 2024. It has
been one year since she sent 10,000 National Guard troops to the
northern border to try to head off U.S. tariffs over the cartels’
fentanyl trafficking, much of which comes from Sinaloa.
In January, Sheinbaum held up a sharp decline in homicide rates last
year as evidence that her security strategy was working.
“What these kinds of episodes do is demolish the federal government’s
narrative that insists that little by little they are getting control of
the situation,” said security analyst David Saucedo. He said Sheinbaum
had tried to “manage the conflict” while the Sinaloa Cartel’s internal
war spread and split the state by obliging people “to take a side with
one of the two groups.”
Fleeting security
The mine workers’ disappearance in late January brought more troops into
the mountains as they searched by air and on the ground for signs of
them.
Mexico’s Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch came to coordinate the
operation. Several arrests were made and from information gleaned from
suspects, authorities found the clandestine graves.
But the increased security presence has not brought peace of mind to
residents.
Roque Vargas, a human rights activist for people displaced by violence
in the area, said that “all of the hubbub has scattered the organized
crime guys” but he worries they could return. He and others are also
concerned about being mistaken for bad guys and attacked by security
forces when they leave their town, because it has happened elsewhere in
the state.
“We’ve practically been abandoned,” he said.
Cartel infighting triggered violence
Sheinbaum took office in October 2024, when Sinaloa was entering a new
spiral of violence following the abduction of Sinaloa Cartel leader
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada by a son of former cartel leader Joaquín “El
Chapo” Guzmán. Zambada was handed over to U.S. authorities and his
faction of the cartel went to war with the faction led by Guzmán’s sons.
Initially, residents of the state capital, Culiacan, were caught in the
crossfire, but the conflict eventually extended statewide. U.S.
President Donald Trump took office last year and designated the Sinaloa
Cartel, among others, a foreign terrorist organization, upping the
pressure on Sheinbaum’s administration to get tough with the cartels.
By last April, Vizsla Silver Corp., the Vancouver, Canada-based mine
owner, announced it was halting activities at the mine because of
security concerns in the area. The pause lasted a month.
García Harfuch said this month that the suspects arrested were part of
the Sinaloa Cartel faction loyal to Guzmán’s sons, known as “los
Chapitos,” and had mistaken the workers for belonging to the other
faction. There has not been an explanation for how the confusion could
have occurred since Vizsla said the workers were taken from their site.
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Relatives and friends of 10 mine workers who were abducted last
month in neighboring Sinaloa state, march demanding justice, in
Hermosillo, Mexico, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Luis
Gutierrez)
Mines and crime
Mines, along with other businesses like avocado groves and pipelines
carrying gasoline, have long attracted organized crime's attention
in Mexico as a source of extortion payments or to steal the
extracted material.
Saucedo, who has researched cases in Guanajuato, Sinaloa and Sonora,
said he has also seen cases where mines take advantage of armed
groups to control mine opponents.
The Mexican government has said it has no reports that Vizsla was
extorted. Sheinbaum said that her administration would talk with all
mining companies in Mexico “to offer the support they require.”
Vizsla did not respond to questions emailed by The Associated Press,
but has said in statements that its focus is on finding the
remaining workers and supporting the affected families. Relatives of
one of the workers declined to comment.
Search for the missing
In the community of El Verde, in the foothills that rise between the
ocean and the mountains, Marisela Carrizales stood beside banners
bearing the photographs of missing people. The road leading to a
site where clandestine graves were discovered was blocked by a
police car. The surrounding town was silent.
“I’m here waiting for answers,” said Carrizales, who belongs to one
of the many search collectives that have spread all over Mexico to
look for the missing. She has been looking for her son, Alejandro,
for 5 ½ years and had come to El Verde with more than 20 others also
looking for missing relatives to monitor authorities’ work and
demand that they help them look in other places, too. “We have
information that there are a lot more graves here … we have to come
to look for them.”
It was here in the first week of February that authorities found a
clandestine grave and then more in the days that followed. The
Attorney General’s office said 10 bodies were found in one location,
five of which have been identified as the missing mine workers. But
the Sinaloa state prosecutor’s office also said additional remains
were found in four other grave sites around the community.
There are many missing. In Mazatlan, a Mexican tourist was taken
from a bar in October. In January, a businessman disappeared. In
February, six other Mexican tourists were abducted from a ritzy part
of the resort city. A woman and a girl who were part of that group
were later found alive outside the city, but the men who were with
them have not appeared.
While the government has strengthened security in Mazatlan ahead of
carnival celebrations, back in the mountains, teachers, doctors or
even buses are not coming to many of the communities out of fear,
Vargas said.
Labrador, the man from Chirimoyos, said that when he is lucky, he
borrows a friend's motorcycle to go to his job in a highway toll
booth. When he can’t borrow it, he has to walk more than 5 miles (8
kilometers) through the mountains, because the person in charge of
local public transportation disappeared in December.
___
Verza reported from Mexico City.
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