Mexico set a new murder record in the first half of 2019 — as 17,608 people were killed in the country plagued by cartel and gang violence.

The alarming number represents a 5.6% increase over the same period last year when their was 16,714 homicides.

National homicide records in Mexico began in 1997.

Mexico experienced an average of nearly 100 murders a day in the first half of the year, with many occurring in the northern state of Sonora, which borders the United States.

Killings in Sonora were up 69% over the same time last year, with many of the murders blamed on drug cartel turf wars.

Meanwhile, Sinaloa — home to convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman — experienced a 23% drop in homicides so far this year.

With Post wires 

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