A child was among 10 people killed when inmates opened fire during visiting hours at a Sinaloa prison already strained by cartel warfare.
Gunfire tore through visiting hours at El Castillo Penitentiary in Mazatlan, Mexico, leaving nine prisoners and one young visitor dead, The Sun reported.
Another 16 inmates were rushed to hospitals with injuries. The prison holds roughly 1,800 people. Authorities later said the facility was back under control, but they have not said what sparked the attack or how many inmates took part.
Sinaloa’s Secretary of Public Security, Sinuhe Tellez, confirmed the dead visitor was a minor. He said the remaining prisoners were safe. Prison visits were suspended. Social workers began contacting the families of those killed.
Heavily armed military personnel, National Guard troops, naval forces, and state police poured into the facility after the violence. Mexico’s federal security cabinet said the prison was “under control,” with officers still on the scene.
"under control"
Authorities have not confirmed whether the bloodshed is tied to the Sinaloa Cartel power struggle that has torn through the northwestern state since September 2024. That fight pits loyalists of imprisoned boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada against the faction led by the sons of jailed kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, known as Los Chapitos.
Local media reported that inmates used guns. Officials have not established the trigger for the violence or released the names of the dead. The number of inmates involved remains unknown.
This was not the first deadly jail outbreak in the state. In May, a rebellion at a jail in Culiacan, Sinaloa’s capital, left seven inmates dead and another injured.
Official figures show Mexico’s prison population had reached 261,388 by February. In Sinaloa, the U.S. State Department already warns Americans against travel because of cartel violence.
President Donald Trump has described the situation in blunt terms. Earlier this year he said “the cartels are running Mexico” and called the conditions “truly deplorable.”
"the cartels are running Mexico"
He has also said, “The cartels are taking the lives of 250,000 to 300,000 people in the United States annually.” Those remarks came as U.S. forces carried out airstrikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean. Trump stopped short of detailing any land targets inside Mexico.
"The cartels are taking the lives of 250,000 to 300,000 people in the United States annually."
A child walked into a prison to visit and never walked out. Nine inmates died with that child. Sixteen more went to the hospital. The guns were inside the walls during visiting hours. The motive is still unstated. The cartel war outside the gates is not a secret.
When cartels can put firepower inside a prison visiting room, the claim that Mexico fully controls its own territory collapses under the body count.
