Sonora’s governor says that essentially all murders in Cajeme, one of the state’s violence hotspots, are linked to drug crimes.

Governor Alfonso Durazo made the claim during the Mexican president’s daily press conference, held last Friday in the Sonoran capital Hermosillo.

“Ninety-six percent of murder victims are linked to drug dealing,” he said of Cajeme, home to Sonora’s second largest city Ciudad Obregon.

That means, he added, that essentially every murder is a product of the violent environment that he accused the victims of helping create.

For a number of years, Cajeme has been one of the state’s most important epicenters of violence, often accounting for a third or more of murder cases.