US-Mexico border security report, March 2025
Date Posted: 15-Apr-2025
Key points
- Notable disputed border routes: In Baja California state, narco banners and targeted killings of police officers, a social media influencer, and fishing industry figures reflected continued high levels of violence in the state. In Chihuahua state, the violent territorial dispute between OCGs La LĂnea and Los Salgueiro continued with armed clashes and UAV attacks in the municipalities of Guadalupe y Calvo and Moris. In Nuevo LeĂłn state, two clashes between security forces and unnamed OCGs took place. In Tamaulipas state, violence flared between OCGs in RĂo Bravo and between the Mexican Navy and the Escorpiones faction of Cártel del Golfo in San Fernando. The state of Sinaloa continued to face conflict between the Cártel de Sinaloa (CDS) factions Mayo Zambada and Menores (also known as Los Chapitos), with frequent killings, UAV attacks, and forced displacement of civilians in the rural areas of Choix and Tomo
- Notable state responses: Mexican security forces continued focusing efforts on seizing clandestine laboratories that produce synthetic drugs, mostly in Culiacán. Notable seizures across northern Mexico included explosives and weapons. In Coahuila, security forces seized 290 cartridges of explosive emulsions from a car reportedly heading for Durango state. A similar type of explosive was also seized in El Rosario, Sinaloa. IEDs adapted to be dropped by small UAVs were found in Sinaloa and Tamaulipas. In Tomo, Culiacán, authorities recovered a pipe bomb still attached to a small UAV
- Notable OCG use of technology: In March UAVs played a notable role in the activities of OCGs in the northern Mexican states. In Chihuahua, explosive-laden UAVs were used to attack security forces in Guadalupe y Calvo. In Sinaloa, OCGs used UAVs to drop explosives and, UAVs made by DJI, including a DJI Matrice 30T, were seized by authorities in Sinaloa. Janes concluded that in areas where authorities seized UAVs and IEDs, and where CDS factions are present, OCGs used DJI drones for surveillance and to drop explosives during clashes with rivals. The explosives attached to the UAVs in Sinaloa were handmade, often manufactured with Emulex Austin Powder explosive emulsions
Mexico
- Notable disputed border and state routes: Culiacán, Sinaloa
- Notable state responses: The deployment of 10,000 National Guard members continued
- Notable OCG use of technology: Small DJI UAVs were frequently seized in Sinaloa
OCG presence and notable events on Mexico's northern border, March 2025 (Janes Central Events/Janes)
Baja California
Narco banners
On 21 and 26 March news outlets AFN Tijuana and Semanario Zeta reported narco banner displays in Mexicali. The first took place on 21 March, when three banners were displayed at different locations across the city. The messages were signed by members of the OCG Los Rusos, faction of CDS-MZ, El Ruso, Poncho de la Lima, and Paloma and contained death threats directed at Julián Leyzaola, who assumed the role of the municipal police chief on 19 March.
News outlet Infobae reported that three unsigned banners were found across Mexicali on 26 March targeting senior officers of the State Citizen Security Force (Fuerza Estatal de Seguridad Ciudadana: FESC), accusing them of corruption. Members of the FESC were also targeted last month. Janes reported the display of three banners signed by CAF members threatening and accusing FESC members of stealing cocaine and illicitly enriching themselves in February.
Fishing industry
On 8 March the La Jornada newspaper reported that on the same day a fisherman and former president of the Federation of Coastal Fishing Cooperatives of San Felipe, Sunshine Antonio RodrĂguez, was shot dead in Mexicali. Hours later in San Felipe GastĂłn Eduardo Parra who, according to news outlet El Imparcial, was a close associate of RodrĂguez, was killed. El Imparcial reported that Baja California's Attorney General MarĂa Elena Andrade did not rule out a link between the two events.
According to an 8 March report by the newspaper La Voz de la Frontera, the RodrĂguez murder was part of a pattern of violence targeting people involved in the fishing sector in the state. In 2024 three people linked to the fishing industry were shot dead.
- Ohiiaishi Manjarrez, an environment consultant and the son of the fishing businessperson and head of Ensenada's Japanese Association, Leonor Masura, was killed in June 2024.
- On 8 July the head of the advocacy group National Chamber of the Fishing and Aquaculture Industry, Minerva PĂ©rez, was killed in Ensenada after publicly denouncing that illegal fishing by OCGs in Baja California has increased since 2020.
- On 3 December Servando Valenzuela, who ran a shark fishing business, was killed in El Sauzal.
Social media influencers
On 28 March 2025 news outlet Proceso reported that Gail Castro (known online as Gail Toys and brother of Sinaloan influencers Markitos Toys, Kevin Castro KC, and Mayve Castro) was shot dead outside a restaurant in Ensenada on the same day. Castro's killing was part of a wave of violence against Mexican influencers that has continued since September 2024, when the violent conflict between the CDS factions MZ and Menores broke out. In January 2025's US-Mexico border security report , Janes reported that a small aircraft dropped leaflets over Culiacán, signed by CDS-MZ. These leaflets accused several influencers (including Gail Toys and his three siblings) of laundering money for rival faction CDS-Menores, also known as Los Chapitos. On 8 January Markitos' home was attacked with gunfire and set on fire. As of 7 April five influencers listed in the leaflet have been killed.
For more information, please see US-Mexico border security report, March 2025
