Chihuahua, Chih.- The crime of drug dealing resurfaced in the large and medium-sized cities that concentrate its incidence in the state, Juárez, Chihuahua, Parral, Cuauhtémoc and Delicias, which went from registering a total of 1,472 cases between January and June 2023, to 2,629 cases in the same period in 2024.
The almost double increase in formal investigations into drug dealing also represents the end of a five-year downward trend, as from 2018 until last year the incidence had shown a decrease in almost all cities in the state with the highest records of this crime.
Data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SNDP) and the Citizen Observatory of the Trust for Competitiveness and Citizen Security (Ficosec) show that, altogether, the cases of drug dealing for which investigation files were opened were 4,335 in the first half of 2018; in the same period in 2019, the figure showed a decrease to 3,800 incidents.
In 2020, the downward trend continued to fall below 3,500 cases; in 2021, it decreased to 3,217 and in the period from January to June 2022, the decrease was to 1,714 open investigation files for this crime.
In 2023, the total number of officially reported cases in the largest municipalities of the state reached 1,472, but in the semester that just ended this year 2024, they almost doubled, with the current 2,629 investigations.
In 2018, Juárez accounted for 86 percent of the incidence of drug dealing in the entire state, with 3,750 cases, while the capital, with 463 incidents, accounted for just over 10 percent; the rest of the incidence was recorded in Parral, Cuauhtémoc and Delicias, with 38, 67 and 17 cases, respectively.
In 2019, almost all cities showed significant declines: the border closed the semester with 3,402 open investigations; the capital with 279; Parral with 24, Cuauhtémoc with 78 and Delicias with 17 incidents, the same as those registered in the previous period.
By 2020, Juárez had decreased to 2,991 cases and Chihuahua, although it showed an increase in relation to the previous period, continued to decline compared to the start period, with 379 cases. The other three medium-sized municipalities showed levels similar to the previous ones.
The downward trend that continued into 2023 led Juárez to close the first half of the year with 948 cases, 64 percent of the total of the five largest municipalities in the state; Chihuahua decreased its absolute incidence to 343 cases, which represented 23 percent of the total.
In this first half of 2024, Juárez has concentrated around the same proportion as the previous period, with 1,667 cases, almost double the absolute incidence of 2023; and Chihuahua, with 646 incidences, exceeds 24 percent. The other municipalities also show significant increases.
The increase between the first half of last year and the current year shows a seasonal increase, but it has its origin in the second half of 2023, when constant increases began to be recorded.
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