After Mazatlán in July recorded its highest monthly homicide total of the year, the Mexican Navy on Saturday announced the deployment of more than 1,700 of its personnel to the Sinaloa port and resort city.
In a statement, the Navy Ministry (SEMAR) said that the deployment was occurring “within the framework of ‘Operation Sable’ Mazatlán” and was aimed at the “strengthening of security” in the city, the second largest in Sinaloa after state capital Culiacán.
The deployment comes after 36 homicides in Mazatlán in July, the city’s highest monthly total of murders in 2026, according to the newspaper El Sol de Mazatlán. It also follows the arrival of 900 Mexican Army troops in Mazatlán on July 23. The bolstering of the army’s presence in the city was part of a security reinforcement in response to a series of armed attacks.
In its statement, SEMAR said that the navy deployment reflects “the institution’s ongoing commitment to the well-being” of Mazatlán residents and tourists.
The ministry said that “operational actions will be focused on strategic areas … with the priority objective of reestablishing peace and public order and weakening illicit infrastructure that fuels schemes of violence and places the health of the population at risk.”
The term “illicit infrastructure” was a reference to clandestine drug laboratories and the cartel assets that support the distribution of narcotics, such as vehicles.
In its statement, SEMAR also issued what it called a “respectful call” for citizens and tourists to have “full confidence and certainty in the deployed forces.”
The ministry said that the central focus of the Mexican Navy’s operations is to “protect Mexican families while acting at all times with strict adherence to human rights, the proportional use of force and the current legal framework.”
“Its presence in the streets and on the coast has the sole aim of providing a safe and protected environment,” SEMAR said.
Violence in Mazatlán
Of the 36 people murdered in Mazatlán in July, 32 were men and four were women, El Sol de Mazatlán reported on Monday. The newspaper wrote that two cases were investigated as femicides, while two of the victims were minors.
Among the armed attacks in Mazatlán last month was one allegedly perpetrated by the “Los Chapitos” faction of the Sinaloa Cartel against marines, two of whom died from wounds they sustained. Marines returned fire and killed 10 criminals.
Much of the violence in Sinaloa is related to an ongoing battle between Los Chapitos, led by sons of convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and “Los Mayos,” a Sinaloa Cartel faction formerly led by Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. The battle intensified in 2024 after Zambada was kidnapped by Joaquín Guzmán López and forced onto a plane that flew him to New Mexico. Both Zambada and Guzmán López, a son of “El Chapo,” were arrested by U.S. authorities at the Doña Ana County International Jetport in the U.S. border state in July 2024.
While the majority of the fighting between Los Chapitos and Los Mayos has occurred in Culiacán and surrounding areas, the battle has spilled into other parts of Sinaloa, including Mazatlán.
As Mexico News Daily reported last month, on July 17 and 18, six armed attacks were reported in Mazatlán in less than 24 hours, leaving four people dead and three others wounded. Between July 22 and 23, five more people were murdered.
El Sol de Mazatlán reported that episodes of violence in Mazatlán in July, including attacks on homes with firearms and explosives, occurred in rural and urban areas of the municipality of Mazatlán, including parts of the city frequented by tourists. Among those areas, the newspaper reported, were San Marcos, Lomas de Monterrey, Santa Fe, Infonavit Alarcón, Hacienda del Seminario, Lomas del Ébano, Zona Dorada and Pradera Dorada.
With reports from Expansión and El Sol de Mazatlán
