Extortion in Mexico rises 65% between 2015 and 2026, according to México Evalúa, Digi Mart USA News: In just over a decade, extortion has increased 65%. The crime does not only affect people who receive threats or must pay fees; it also raises business costs and can be reflected in the prices consumers pay for products and services, according to México Evalúa, which analyzed extortion by economic region from 2015 to 2026 (January–September).
Three strategic regions for manufacturing, commerce and the USMCA (Centro, Bajío–Occidente and Norte) account for 85% of the extortion victims registered nationwide. The crime has shifted toward entities not originally prioritized in the National Strategy Against Extortion, and it is concentrated at the municipal level: only 42 municipalities, fewer than 6% of those recording the crime, account for half of national victims, the study adds.
Between 2015, the year registration began, and 2026, the national rate of extortion victims per 100,000 inhabitants grew 65%, rising from 3.9 to 6.4 during the January–September periods of both years. In contrast to the 31.3% decline in the national intentional homicide rate between 2025 and 2026, extortion has not shown a sustained downward trend, México Evalúa notes.
Crimes of coercion and rent extraction behave independently of lethal violence.
Geographically, the phenomenon is clearly concentrated in productive corridors. The Centro Metropolitano (8.1 victims per 100,000 inhabitants), the Norte Industrial (7.7) and Bajío–Occidente (7.5) together account for 85% of the country’s victims, despite home to 69% of the population.
In the eight entities prioritized in 2025 by the National Strategy Against Extortion (ENCE), victims fell 13% between 2025 and 2026, while in the rest of the country they rose 30%. Six of the nine entities with the highest rates (Morelos, Zacatecas, Colima, Querétaro, Baja California Sur and Tabasco) are not on that priority list, the report specifies.
During 2026, 729 municipalities recorded at least one extortion case, but only 42 of them account for 50% of victims. The crime is often more intense in peripheral municipalities and industrial corridors, such as the Irapuato–Salamanca–Celaya axis or eastern Morelos, than in each state’s main cities.
These findings show that extortion is also an economic problem. The crime is concentrated in regions home to export manufacturing, logistics and the country’s largest consumer market, and it hits commerce and small and medium-sized businesses hardest, whose costs ultimately pass through to final prices.
Amid new investment inflows and the review of the USMCA, combating extortion in these territories is also a competitiveness policy.
In the central part of the country, the report stresses that the region is the main space for consumption, commerce and distribution nationwide, with a broad industrial base. Mexico City and the State of Mexico form its commercial and services core, while Hidalgo, Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala contribute significant manufacturing specialization.
The region is strategic for the domestic market, financial activity, goods distribution and industrial production.
Within this zone, México Evalúa highlights the situation in the State of Mexico. The Centro has the highest extortion rate in the country, although it is below its 2023 peak.
That decline is attributed to the State of Mexico, which now registers a little over a third of the victims it had in 2022, the largest drop in victim numbers nationwide. The fact that its intentional homicide rate also fell by a similar proportion over the past year suggests the reduction may be real and not merely a registration effect.
If confirmed, the State of Mexico offers an experience worth evaluating to identify what worked.
Morelos has the highest extortion rate in the country, and the crime is growing while homicide declines. Morelos is not among the entities prioritized by the National Strategy, despite being the most serious case nationally.
Its extortion rate is more than four times the national rate and nearly doubled in one year, even as its intentional homicide rate decreased. Registrations are concentrated not in Cuernavaca, the capital, but in Cuautla and neighboring municipalities in the east of the state, as well as Xochitepec.
A rapid rise in extortion, with less lethal violence and in medium-sized municipalities, is consistent with groups moving from confrontation to systematic collection from the local economy, the report adds.
According to the study, Mexico City changed scale from one year to the next.
