Two soldiers were injured and one other person was reportedly killed during an outbreak of violence in Culiacán, Sinaloa, on Monday morning.
Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya said on X that soldiers came under fire at around 6 a.m. after detecting the presence of armed civilians in the La Campiña neighborhood, located east of downtown Culiacán. He said that two soldiers were wounded.
Rocha said that security forces from all three levels of government responded in “a coordinated operation” and seized two vehicles abandoned by the aggressors “in their escape.”
The governor said that the situation had been brought under control, and called on citizens to remain calm. As a precaution, classes were suspended at schools in the area, Rocha said.
The attack on soldiers came after a clash between armed civilians in La Campiña, according to the Sinaloa Public Security Ministry.
Citing unofficial reports, the Culiacán newspaper Río Doce reported that one person was killed and another wounded in clashes in the eastern sector of the Sinaloa capital. It said that confrontations first occurred between rival criminal groups, but did not identify them or the person believed to have been killed.
#VIDEO | Reportan enfrentamientos entre delincuentes y elementos del Ejército en Culiacán; suspenden clases https://t.co/QPZUqwpHe7 pic.twitter.com/52YELiZVjW
— Milenio (@Milenio) September 9, 2024
Videos have been posted on social media showing abandoned vehicles and footage of the clashes in Culiacán.
Río Doce said that armed men were seen traveling in at least 40 vehicles equipped with weapons. The Milenio newspaper reported that armed men were also seen in the north of Culiacán, a stronghold of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The outbreak of violence on Monday morning came 11 days after alleged Sinaloa Cartel gunmen opened fire on an army convoy and set fire to vehicles to create blazing “narco-blockades” in Culiacán.
No deaths or injuries were reported as a result of the chaos that unfolded Aug. 29 in a rural area north of the Sinaloa state capital where accused drug trafficker Ovidio Guzmán López — one of the sons of convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera — was arrested in January 2023.
There have been numerous incidents of violence in Sinaloa since alleged Sinaloa Cartel leaders Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García and Joaquín Guzmán López, another son of El Chapo, were arrested in the United States on July 25 after flying into an airport near El Paso, Texas, on a private plane.
Ten homicides on Aug. 16 and 17 were linked to organized crime, and appeared to be the result of Sinaloa Cartel infighting following the arrests of the two men.
Zambada alleges that he was kidnapped by Guzmán López, forced onto a private plane and taken to the United States against his will.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges they face in the U.S.
