Cartel Turf Wars Drive Sinaloa Femicides to Their Highest Level in the Last Decade

After 15 months of infighting between Los Chapitos and La Mayiza, the two Sinaloa Cartel factions battling for control of the criminal organization in the state, violence in Sinaloa has reached levels not seen before.

The internal war has claimed thousands of lives. Since Sept. 9, 2024, the Mexican outlet Noroeste has documented at least 2,444 intentional homicides and 2,924 cases of people reported missing or forcibly taken as of Dec. 8.

Even though crimes like homicides, kidnappings and auto theft dominate headlines, a recent investigation by Animal Político found that femicides in Sinaloa have spiraled, and this year has already become the state's deadliest for women in at least a decade.

According to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), from August 2024 to September 2025 the number of femicide victims in the state rose 50 percent, up from 26 victims between 2023 and 2024 to 39 between 2024 and 2025. Authorities also said this past September marked the month with the highest number of femicide victims in Sinaloa in the last 10 years with 14 such cases reported.

Citizen groups and Sinaloa-based collectives argue that the high number of femicide victims is not simply a coincidence, but directly tied to the wave of violence unleashed by the conflict between the Guzmán family and those loyal to the Zambada family.

"Femicides are not collateral damage because it seems to me they're treated as something pushed aside, minimized, made to look like accidents. Women are victims, and they're victims of this conflict, because if this had not happened, they would not have been killed," Priscila Salas, spokesperson for the feminist collective No se metan con nuestras hijas (Don't Mess With Our Daughters), told Animal Político in an interview.

Although SESNSP data already shows an alarming trend in femicide numbers, figures from the Sinaloa Attorney General's Office indicate the real number of victims is even higher. According to the office, as of Nov. 30, there were 94 women killed in 2025, 38 of them in the municipality of Culiacán, the epicenter of the war between the Chapitos and the Mayos.

"Our lives changed drastically because the situation we're in is violent. This is a conflict that has lasted a year, it has consequences, and above all, it has been lethal," said Salas.

Figures from the Sinaloa Attorney General's Office also detail the extent of gender-based violence in the state. As of Nov. 30, there were 94 women killed in 2025.

Of that total, 65 cases were classified as femicides and the remaining 29 as intentional homicides. The combined figure already far surpasses the 55 killings of women documented throughout all of 2024, even without December data.

As reported by Animal Político, the most recent femicide occurred on Nov. 30, in Culiacán. The victim, Minerva, a 28-year-old woman from Guerrero, died after being suffocated by her partner inside their home.

Rita Tirado, spokesperson for the trans feminist collective Periferia Subversiva (Subversive Periphery), told Animal Político that people in Sinaloa have spent more than a year living in fear.

"We live in a city where people are killed, where you find bodies on the streets, on the highways, where there are constant shootouts, where you don't even feel safe leaving your house or commuting to work or school," Tirado said.

Groups also urged authorities to begin recognizing transfemicides in the state and classifying them as femicides, noting they too have increased amid the broader wave of violence.

"Our demands are clear: we call for an end to gender-based killings and disappearances, the proper classification of every violent death, truth and swift justice, and full reparations," the collective No se metan con nuestras hijas said in a statement.