Report Counts 344 Organized-Crime Attacks on Mexican Businesses
A Data Cívica study counts 344 attacks by organized crime on Mexican businesses in a year, with Sinaloa and Guanajuato hit hardest. Costs and key figures inside.
Organized crime carried out 344 attacks on companies and small businesses in Mexico over the past year, according to a study called Negocios entre balas (“Businesses Among Bullets”), presented Wednesday by the civic group Data Cívica and reported by Expansión Política.
Mónica Meltis, Data Cívica’s executive director, said the figures show how far criminal violence reaches beyond homicide counts. Nearly half of the attacks were concentrated in four states: Sinaloa, Guanajuato, Quintana Roo and Veracruz.
The central numbers
- 344: attacks on businesses by organized crime in the last year, the study’s count.
- 115,100 million pesos: the estimated cost of insecurity and crime for companies in 2025, according to the 2026 National Survey of Business Victimization (ENVE). That is almost 0.46% of Mexico’s gross domestic product (GDP).
- 51% and 49%: the split of that cost. Spending on protective measures made up 51%, and direct losses made up 49%.
- 26%: the share of businesses that were victims of crime in 2025, mainly of extortion.
- 19%: the share of the attacks that took place in Sinaloa alone.
- 48: attacks recorded in the municipality of Culiacán, where most of Sinaloa’s attacks on businesses took place.
Where the attacks concentrate
Sinaloa has lived through a severe wave of violence since September 2024, caused by a war between two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, known as Los Chapitos and Los Mayos. Culiacán accounted for most of the attacks on businesses in the state.
In Guanajuato, another state with intense organized-crime violence, the study identified 41 attacks on companies. Of those, 21 occurred in the municipality of Irapuato.
Why criminal groups target businesses
Meltis explained that criminal groups use violence against businesses to control who sells, at what price and to whom merchants buy. Companies that break the groups’ rules are punished through attacks on their premises, their goods or their business units.
Why it matters
The business survey puts a price on the problem: 115,100 million pesos in 2025, with just over half of it going to protection rather than to losses from specific crimes. Because 26% of businesses reported being victims, mostly of extortion, the effect reaches ordinary shops and firms as well as the large companies that appear in headline cases.
Meltis framed the study as a measure of violence that homicide statistics miss. Attacks on locales, merchandise and business units are aimed at controlling local commerce, which affects pricing and the choice of suppliers and customers in the affected areas. The report concentrates on four states (Sinaloa, Guanajuato, Quintana Roo and Veracruz), while the survey figures on cost and victimization describe businesses across the country.
Source: Expansión Política
