While extortion and kidnapping have long been features of Mexico’s criminal landscape, recent incidents, including the kidnapping of 10 workers from a Canadian-owned mining site, highlight the persistent threat to Mexico’s business environment, writes Shannon Lorimer.
Even as President Claudia Sheinbaum pursues a more targeted security strategy to address cartel-related violence and improve protection for key commercial sectors, organised crime and violence continues to threaten personnel, operations and revenue in Mexico.
Insecurity and violence
The reach of powerful groups like the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) was evident in its February 2026 retaliation against the capture of its leader, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, or ‘El Mencho.’ El Mencho’s death in custody triggered a backlash across multiple states, including Jalisco, Michoacán and Guanajuato, involving ‘narco-blockades’ (road blockades using burning vehicles) and clashes with National Guard and military personnel. While the CJNG’s retaliation was short-lived, with most violence easing after 24 hours, such actions have been common practice for years in response to local security operations, posing safety risks to civilians and businesses in affected areas – particularly transport drivers, as trucks are commonly hijacked and set on fire to blockade roads.
Targeting cartel leadership structures can have longer-term consequences; the potential now exists for infighting and splintering to drive greater violence as the CJNG reconfigures its leadership structure. These dynamics became apparent following the arrest of Sinaloa Cartel leader, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, by US authorities in Texas in July 2024; subsequent internal disputes prompted a violent battle in September 2024, and an ongoing war between the cartel’s two main factions in Sinaloa State. In municipalities like Concordia in Sinaloa State, where ten mineworkers (including engineers, technical staff and security personnel) were kidnapped in January 2026 from a gated compound, the conflict between the now-fragmented cartel’s Los Chapitos and La Mayiza factions has led to a severe breakdown in the security environment, with former company contractors describing armed men in pickup trucks and armoured vehicles roaming the area in which the company’s operations are located.
Age-old threats
As Sinaloa infighting persists and the CJNG faces possible instability in its ranks, decentralised violence could see new conflicts emerge in contested areas in the coming months as disputes and new alliances form. In Mexico’s already heightened threat landscape, such insecurity could create opportune environments for other activities like kidnapping and extortion as groups look to assert territorial control and establish revenue streams.
Kidnapping
Kidnappings have long provided criminal groups with a crucial revenue source. Larger companies and foreign operators do not often report on kidnappings, although underreporting is common, and operators still face indirect kidnapping threats against personnel and workers. Organised crime is deeply embedded in the lucrative mining sector, with some companies reportedly establishing agreements with cartels for protection, and personnel facing personal extortion by cartel members that can lead to retaliation for noncompliance in the form of kidnappings and death.
For example, the Canadian-owned company claimed that no ransom demands were received following the kidnapping of its mineworkers, and seven kidnapped employees were found dead in February and March 2026, amid reports that site managers may have colluded with the Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa cartel prior to the kidnapping.
Extortion
Cartels enforce land, rail and road “taxation” schemes, or demand “protection” fees, threatening operations and personnel should the targeted company or individuals fail to comply. According to the Mexican Mining Chamber, a private sector collective, its members report extortion as the second most common crime after petty theft. The high-profit avocado industry in Michoacán has also been a particularly attractive target for extortion, while commercial transport drivers in states like Michoacán, Tamaulipas, Jalisco and Guanajuato are often required to pay cartels in exchange for passage. Following the US administration’s February 2026 designation of six drug cartels – including Sinaloa and the CJNG – as foreign terrorist organisations, increased compliance requirements for companies has seen cartels shift tactics. Groups are increasingly establishing or purchasing businesses – including those supplying the mining sector, such as security and transport services – and pressuring companies into contracting them.
A 'new' familiar approach
Since taking office in October 2024, Sheinbaum’s security strategy has maintained former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s emphasis on social upliftment, but adopts a more aggressive approach to law enforcement, facing significant pressure from the US to curb cartel activities and cross-border fentanyl flows. Sheinbaum has sought to expand enforcement operations, increase intelligence coordination between agencies, and work with US authorities. This has accelerated the seizure of drugs and arrests of key cartel figures like El Mencho, and – according to Sheinbaum’s administration – resulted in the lowest homicide rate since 2016.
However, several factors will continue to challenge this strategy in the coming months; leadership decapitation operations risk further fragmentation of major groups, with reporting suggesting that some of the CJNG’s rivals in Guanajuato, Michoacán and in the north have already sought to bolster their presence in the group’s territory. Cartels also remain highly adaptable, diversifying illegal activities, like extortion, to remain competitive, and coopting and colluding with figures within government, law enforcement, state institutions and the commercial sector. A further threat of US drone strikes looms amid similar operations in Ecuador coordinated with the country’s military. Mexican cartels have reportedly stockpiled anti-drone and other military-grade weapons in anticipation of such actions, and should strikes occur, they remain significantly more capable of retaliation.
Addressing organised crime and the wider security environment in Mexico will require systemic change. While Sheinbaum’s strategy may yield some statistical improvements, the potential for unpredictable escalations and new frontiers in cartel rivalries and violence will remain a key security challenge in the operating environment in the coming years.
