A Mexican journalist who covered drug trafficking has been murdered, officials told AFP on Monday, the latest casualty in a country notoriously dangerous for reporters.

The reporter, Miguel Angel Beltran, had previously worked in print media and was now covering crime-related issues on social media, according to local reports.

Beltran's body was found on Saturday along a stretch of highway that connects the northwest state of Durango with Mazatlan, a resort hub in the neighboring state of Sinaloa, local press reported. Local media reported the journalist's body was found wrapped in a blanket, with a message that read: "For spreading false accusations against the people of Durango."

His death was confirmed to AFP by the Durango state prosecutor's office.

Beltran had reported from TikTok accounts, under the handle Capo, and on Facebook, on the page La Gazzetta Durango, AFP confirmed.

In one of his last posts, on Oct. 22, Beltran reported on the arrest of a leader of a crime gang called Cabrera Sarabia, which operates in Durango and is a rival of the powerful Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartels.

Mexico is considered one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, with more than 150 media workers slain since 1994, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Beltran and other murdered journalists worked in areas where drug cartels were active, and they published their work in local media or on social media, generally in precarious employment conditions.

Media workers are regularly targeted in Mexico, often in direct reprisal for their work covering topics like corruption and the country's notoriously violent drug traffickers.

A record number of journalists were killed worldwide in 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report released earlier this year, including five in Mexico.

Mexico had its deadliest year for journalists in 2022, with 13 killings, according to CPJ and Articulo 19, an organization promoting press freedom in Mexico. Since 2000, Articulo 19 has documented 174 murders and 31 disappearances of journalists in Mexico.

All but a handful of media workers' killings and abductions remain unsolved.

"Impunity is the norm in crimes against the press," the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a 2024 report on Mexico.

A report by CPJ and Amnesty International showed in 2024 that Mexico fails in its efforts to provide state-sanctioned protection to members of the press.

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