Local authorities were working with the armed group before hijacking the Canadian mining company, former workers said.

Local management of a Canadian mining company in Mexico whose workers were killed earlier this year are said to have established some level of cooperation with an organized armed group in the region, according to a former employee and two former contractors.

Mexican government authorities say the suspected drug-trafficking group, Sinaloa, has killed five of the 10 Mexican workers held hostage in Vizsla Silver Corp. based in Vancouver on January 23. Five other employees are still officially missing.

The group was captured in a gated community in the center of Concordia, a municipality located 50 kilometers east of the coastal city of Mazatlán, Sinaloa.

Vizsla Silver Corp has been conducting exploration on 35,000 acres in a remote, mountainous area called the Panuco Project, located about 25 miles east of Concordia’s city center.

While Mexican authorities periodically entered the region to patrol, the area was mostly controlled by an organized armed group, said the former employee and two contractors. They did not reveal which group the armed men belonged to.

The armed group shot down drones while men with guns, on the back of trucks, roamed the area during the day, said former Panuco Project workers. Armored, tank-like vehicles, called monsters, rolled at night on roads that cross Vizsla Corp.’s testing grounds, they said.

“This region was a war zone … there were two factions, maybe more, and there was conflict between them,” said the former Vizsla Silver employee.

Due to security concerns, CBC News has agreed not to reveal the names of the people or the specific days they worked on the Vizsla Silver projects. All three worked on the Panuco company project throughout the year 2025.

Vizsla Silver’s response to the incident

“Vizsla Silver prioritizes the safety and security of its people and completely denies the allegations to the contrary made against former employees,” the company said in a statement emailed to CBC News on Wednesday afternoon.

“We are carefully reviewing the circumstances that led to the recent tragic events and are cooperating fully with the investigation led by the Mexican authorities.”

Vizsla said in a previous statement that its security systems were “informed by continuous monitoring and intelligence” while “guided by industry best practices and international experts.” The company said it has “never received a single threat” and has “never been defrauded or paid” by any party.

Vizsla Silver said it also “found no demand for ransom following the kidnapping.”

Sinaloa cartel Civil War

Experts told CBC News that the Sinaloa region has been under control for decades. The Sinaloa cartel, an alliance of regional organized crime groups, has disintegrated into a civil war that has left thousands dead and missing across the province in the past 18 months.

The fallout from this conflict, involving neighboring armed groups and former allies, spilled over into the area where Vizsla Silver was operating.

The civil war began in September 2024, after Joaquín’s one (El Chapo) Guzmán’s sons sold Ismael (El Mayo) Zambada García and handed him over to US authorities in July of the same year.

El Mayo once led the Sinaloa caravan with El Chapo. Now, those loyal to the sons of El Chapo, called Los Chapitos, and those loyal to the son of El Mayo, called La Mayiza, are fighting a brutal war.

Mexican authorities say Los Chapitos kidnapped Vizsla Silver employees.

Workers say they were told ‘no problem’

As the security situation at the Vizsla Silver test site deteriorated throughout the year 2025, the site management would tell the affected workers that they had nothing to fear because everything had been arranged with armed men, according to three former employees of the Panuco Project.

“They were telling us, ‘everything is under control, there’s no problem,'” said the former Vizsla Silver employee.

At one point, company management told workers to stop wearing orange vests and helmets and sport yellow vests and helmets so the armed men patrolling the area would know they were traveling with Vizsla Silver, said one former contractor.

“They told us that the opposition [armed group] they had stolen vests and entered the premises and the vests were orange. That’s why they say let’s wear yellow vests,” said the former contractor.

Workers are also advised to show their work certificates if they ever face these armed men in order to be allowed to continue their work, according to a former employee of Vizsla Silver.

“Show your details again [the armed men] he will do nothing. They won’t do anything with the vest you are wearing. That’s what they told us,” said the former employee.

Vizsla Sliver site managers also dismissed, belittled or ridiculed workers’ concerns, former Panuco Project workers said.

“I saw it and heard it, and I heard it from other workers who would talk to me and tell me,” said the former worker.

“Yes, [management] they mocked and made fun [workers who complained].”

Managers at the facilities will say that the workers are lying, saying that the gunshot they heard while they were at work did not really happen and that it was made because they were lazy and did not want to work, said the former Panuco Project workers.

But as the year progresses, the security situation continues to deteriorate.

Sometime in June 2025, armed men took two Vizsla Silver trucks and used them for unknown purposes, Said the former employee. The trucks were equipped with GPS tracking devices and company security guards were watching the vehicles traveling in the southern part of the mine, he said.

“The company has never wanted to stop [operations],” said one of the contractors who had worked.

Companies face the presence of organized crime in Mexico: expert

It’s an open secret that mining companies sometimes face organized crime groups in parts of Mexico and must find a way to deal with them if they want to operate, said David Saucedo, a business security consultant based in Mexico City.

“It is not possible to forgive those companies, but I understand, they have invested in permits, contractors, the purchase of equipment and the construction of infrastructure,” said Suacedo.

“Suddenly, a group of criminals appeared trying to stop or introduce obstacles. Therefore, some mining companies are negotiating with these criminal groups.”

Vizsla Silver denies ever dealing with criminal gangs.

Former Panuco Project employees told CBC News that they all worked on mining projects in different parts of Mexico that also faced a heavy presence of organized crime groups.

In their experience, in these other programs, workers say that they will not face the consequences of the management if they refuse to enter a certain area because of the sound of gunfire or the presence of armed groups.

“In this matter, my colleagues and I did not feel supported by Vizsla,” said the former employee.

Vizla Silver, which began operations in the region in 2019, claims to have discovered high-quality silver deposits that, once mined, will place the company among the world’s leading silver producers, reaping billions of dollars in annual revenue.