Nearly a year after her sister Cecilia disappeared in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Nadia Berrelleza searches desperately for answers. Cecilia, 31, vanished in July 2025 after lunch with friends. Nadia has faced extortion attempts using AI-generated images and videos falsely depicting her sister's fate.

The disappearance reflects a surge in violence against women in Sinaloa, driven by a two-year war between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. In 2024, 105 women were killed — the highest toll in 14 years — and 299 disappeared, with 73 cases investigated as femicides. As of July 2025, Sinaloa again led Mexico in killings of women, with 153 missing.

Impunity is rampant: only 8% of femicide cases from 2015–2026 resulted in convictions, mirroring a national 95% unsolved rate for violent crimes. Forced to investigate alone, Nadia has risked her life, once disguising herself as a man to follow a tip to a cartel ranch, and another time posing as a homeless person to surveil a stash house raided later by police. Street cameras captured Cecilia being handcuffed and taken from a boyfriend's house, leading Nadia to suspect the friend who drove them. "This is a nest of snakes," Nadia said. "The good guys are outnumbered.".