Durango, Mexico — 2025 GÓMEZ PALACIO, Mexico — The calls began quietly at first. A cattle supplier in Lerdo. A grain warehouse outside Gómez Palacio. A trucking contractor who moved heavy machinery along the cotton fields of La Laguna. Each call carried the same message: pay or suffer the consequences. By the time business chambers spoke openly in the fall, extortion in La Laguna had grown into a regional crisis — one increasingly testing the leadership of Governor Esteban Vi