Zacatecas AG: Multihomicide of 10, including officials, may be linked to extortion and collusion

The murders of 10 men whose bodies were found in three different municipalities in the state of Zacatecas on Saturday could be linked to extortion and collusion between criminals and public officials, the Zacatecas attorney general said Sunday. The bodies — including that of Ignacio Castrejón Valdez, a former mayor of Sombrerete, Zacatecas — were found in the municipalities of Morelos, Pánuco and Saín Alto, all located north of Zacatecas City. Five of the bodies were found hanging from a bridge in Pánuco. Among the other victims were Fidel Alvarado de la Torre, an official with the Fresnillo municipal government, and Andrés Vázquez Gurrola, an ex-councilor in the municipality of Canatlán, Durango. In a video message on Sunday, Zacatecas Attorney General Cristian Paul Camacho said that “various pieces of evidence have been collected, which indicate that the main lines of investigation involve possible acts of extortion and collusion by public officials.” “This investigation must be carried out in a very exhaustive and very professional way,” he said, adding that a financial probe could be part of it. Camacho said that authorities had obtained video footage that allowed them to establish the vehicles that were used in “the criminal events” — i.e., those used to dump the bodies in public places. “It is necessary to inform that at this time a search warrant is being executed at a property in the municipality of Fresnillo, where it has been determined at least two of the victims were there before they were killed,” he said. “… At a different place, a vehicle related to the events was seized.” Camacho said that eight of the victims were from Zacatecas and two were from the neighboring state of Durango. “Among the victims is the ex-mayor of Sombrerete, Ignacio Castrejón Valdez, and two officials from the municipality of Fresnillo. One of them worked as the director of social development and one was a Civil Protection member,” he said. Referring to ex-municipal councilor Andrés Vázquez Gurrola, Camacho said that another victim was a lawyer and former police officer from Durango. Six others were businessmen in various fields including agriculture, entertainment and construction. One of the businessmen owned a bar. Camacho said that eight of the victims were strangled to death, while two others, including Alvarado, the social development director in Fresnillo, were shot. He said that bullet casings recovered by authorities were being subjected to an “exhaustive analysis” in order to establish whether perpetrators of the murders had used the same weapons in other crimes. According to the attorney general, four of the victims stopped communicating with their families last Thursday, while five ceased communication last Friday. The other victim ceased contact with his family on Saturday. Camacho said that the Zacatecas Attorney General’s Office didn’t receive any reports that the victims had been abducted. Citing the results of toxicology tests, Camacho said that five of the victims, including the two municipal officials from Fresnillo, had recently consumed drugs. In the same video message, Rodrigo Reyes Mugüerza, general secretary of the Zacatecas government, said that it had been a “weekend of uncertainty … fear and concern” for residents of the northern state. Homicides declined by more than 60% annually in Zacatecas in the first six months of 2026, according to government data, but Reyes said that “days like Saturday … remind us that the process of pacification is a complex and continuous process.” He said that state authorities were carrying out an operation aimed at detaining those responsible for the murders and were committed to “minimizing the possibility of these events being repeated.” “From the state government, we once again confirm our commitment to peace, to security and above all to solidarity with all the people of Zacatecas,” Reyes said. At a press conference on Monday, Governor David Monreal Ávila conveyed his condolences to the victims’ families and declared that there will be no impunity for the murders. Governor David Monreal Ávila conveyed his condolences to the victims’ families on Monday. (David Monreal Avila/Facebook) “Far from intimidating us, expressions of barbarity like those of last Saturday force us to redouble efforts. They oblige us not to let our guard down, not to take a backward step or fear groups that violate peace,” he said. The Morena party governor said that his government is supported by the federal government, and stressed that the state of Zacatecas has sufficient technology, equipment and trained security personnel. “We’ll put all this capacity in play to shed light on the events of Saturday and, above all, to guarantee that they are not repeated and to ensure that whoever committed this atrocity receives the appropriate punishment,” Monreal said. With reports from Aristegui Noticias, Reforma, El Financiero and El Sol de Zacatecas