A Sonoyta police official was killed Sunday, the Sonora investigative police reported.
SaΓΊl Fernando FΓ©lix del Castillo, deputy chief of the Plutarco ElΓas Calles municipal police, was found dead at about 8:20 a.m. in a vacant lot of the BurΓ³crata neighborhood in the border town across from Lukeville.
A gunshot wound was visible, the news release said, and officials found handgun bullet casings at the scene.
Sonoyta and the rural communities to the east, all part of the municipality of Plutarco Elias Calles, have been the battleground for rival cartel factions vying to control valuable territory for moving people and drugs into the United States.
So far this year, the Sonora state police have reported nearly 40 homicides just in the Sonoyta area β with a population of about 18,000 β and another five wounded.
The recent violence across the border is due to fighting between cells of the Sinaloa cartel known as Los Memos and Los Salazar.
Violence in the Sonoyta area began to spike in January over Los Memosβ attempt to take control over the Sonoyta plaza and all drug smuggling routes.
Itβs the most intense fighting since early 2009, when 12 dismembered bodies were found in an abandoned vehicle along the Caborca-Sonoyta highway, with a narco message saying the Sinaloa Cartel was taking over the plaza.
Sonora has always been a key place for traffickers. To the south and east, in neighboring Sinaloa and Chihuaha β and somewhat within Sonora, too β is significant drug production, including opium poppies, marijuana and meth. To the north, the border is more porous than in other places and far more desolate.
