At least 10 people were killed and more than a dozen injured when a fight broke out at a prison in Mexico's Sinaloa state on October 8, local government officials said. The incident occurred during visiting hours at El Castillo Penitentiary in the coastal city of Mazatlan.
Fatalities and Injuries
Sinaloa's Public Security Secretariat confirmed on X that nine prisoners and one visiting family member died in the violence. Sixteen inmates required hospital treatment for injuries sustained during the riot.
Local media reported that inmates used guns during the fight. The trigger for the riot remains unclear, as does the number of the 1,800 inmates who participated.
Security Response
In the aftermath, military personnel, National Guard troops, naval forces and state security officers stormed the facility to re-establish control. Mexico's federal security cabinet confirmed the prison, which holds 1,800 inmates, is now "under control."
Context and Background
Experts point to severe overcrowding, fuelled partly by pretrial detention practices - which keep thousands incarcerated without conviction - coupled with inadequate staffing levels, as key drivers of corruption and violence within the prison system.
Last May, violence erupted at a Culiacan prison, Sinaloa's capital, resulting in seven inmate deaths and one injury. Mexico operates 276 correctional facilities, comprising 14 federal penitentiaries and 249 state institutions. Official statistics show the prison population stood at 261,388 people as of February.
Violence broke out in Sinaloa in September 2024 during an internal power battle between two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, setting the sons of convicted former drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, known as "Los Chapitos," against supporters of another imprisoned former cartel leader, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada. Thursday's riot comes as Mexico's government faces mounting pressure from the Trump administration to take tougher action against cartels.
