Members of the Mexican army stand guard outside El Castillo prison following reports of a riot at the facility in Mazatlan, Mexico, on October 8, 2026 [Carlos Lopez/AFP]
Published On 9 Oct 20269 Oct 2026
Ten people have been killed and 16 others injured in a fight at the El Castillo Penitentiary Centre in the city of Mazatlan, in Mexico’s northwestern state of Sinaloa, state authorities said.
The Sinaloa Public Security Secretariat said on Thursday that a fight inside the prison had left nine inmates and a family visitor dead.
Sinaloa’s Secretary of Public Security, Sinuhe Tellez, said in a video posted on social media that the visitor was a minor.
The 16 injured inmates were transferred for medical attention, the secretariat said.
An inter-institutional group of security forces moved in, and the prison is now “under control”, with authorities remaining at the site, the secretariat added.
Social work staff are contacting the families of the dead, Tellez said, noting that visits to the prison had been suspended as a precaution and the rest of the prison population was safe.
Sinaloa is a battleground for warring factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel and is one of six Mexican states the US State Department advises Americans not to visit over security concerns.
Officials have not said whether the violence at the prison was linked to that conflict.
