Mexico-U.S. frontier city a leader in nationwide kidnappings

Mexico's northern frontier city of Juárez became the country's chief hub for kidnappings, mostly for extortion, in the first nine months of 2026, the Diario de Juárez reported on 21 October. An analysis by pollsters Tresearch using statistics compiled by the SESNSP, a police intelligence body, counted 106 kidnappings in the city between January and the end of September, out of a total of 116 for the state of Chihuahua where Juárez is located. While statewide kidnappings were 16% down year on year, their numbers were now comparable in historical terms to the last peak in the years 2010-12, the daily stated. Chihuahua, it observed, was now governed by a member of the conservative National Action Party, María Eugenia Campos Galván, just as Mexico was then governed by a president of the same party who famously declared war on the drug cartels. Between October 2025 and the end of September 2026, Chihuahua registered 164 kidnappings, considerably more than the next two states with most registered kidnappings in that period: Sonora with 37, and Tlaxcala with 16.