MEXICO CITY — After a record year of bloodshed, killings have dropped by two-thirds since December in the state of Sinaloa, the historic center of Mexican drug trafficking, according to tallies kept by local and national media.
Those reports have fueled speculation that leaders of the two biggest Sinaloan drug gangs, which have been locked in a fight for territorial control, reached an agreement in December to hold fire, after finding the battle was sapping time, energy and money better spent on their drug business.
A truce would be welcomed in Sinaloa, where ambushes, shootouts and kidnappings occur day and night. More than 120 people were killed in the state in December, according to tallies kept by the Mexican media; January appears set to end with about 40 deaths.
