The Narco Blog

17 Cars Stolen in California, Arizona and Nevada Found Under a Luxury Rocky Point (Puerto Peñasco) Complex Where a Freed Missing Man Works, Sonora Prosecutors Say — Plus Drugs in an Armored Jeep

By The Narco Blog · October 10, 2026 · Updated October 10, 2026

Night view from above of a row of cars and SUVs parked beside a desert lot in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, with a police vehicle passing in the foreground — Vehicles shown in a Sonora prosecutors' image of the Oct. 9, 2026, seizure in Rocky Point (Puerto Peñasco). Photo: FGJE Sonora, via Proyecto Puente.

Sonora prosecutors say they found 18 vehicles in the basement of a luxury apartment complex in Rocky Point (Puerto Peñasco), and that 17 of them had been reported stolen in California, Arizona and Nevada. The complex is where one of the two people who went missing in the beach town on Oct. 1 works as maintenance chief, the Sonora State Attorney General’s Office (FGJES) said, according to Diario del Yaqui, Expreso and Radar Sonora on Oct. 10, 2026. Both people were later found alive. Officers also found drugs inside an armored Jeep.

Two-panel image: top, a row of seized vehicles at night in Puerto Peñasco; bottom, vehicles including a white truck marked AMIC, Sonora's state investigative police — Seized vehicles, and a truck of Sonora’s state investigative agency (AMIC), during the Oct. 9 operation in Puerto Peñasco. Image: via Radar Sonora.

What prosecutors say they found

The vehicles were seized on Oct. 9, the outlets reported. After checking with U.S. authorities, the FGJES said 17 of them had theft reports filed between 2021 and 2025. They include a 2025 Ford Bronco, a 2023 Cadillac Escalade, a 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander and a 2022 Chevrolet Silverado. Investigators said they identified a 2022 Jeep Wagoneer from a serial number on its gas tank.

The 18th vehicle, an armored 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee, had no theft report, but drugs were found inside it. The reports do not say what kind of drugs or how much. State investigators worked with the Army, Navy, National Guard and state police, and the vehicles were moved to Sonoyta.

A link to the missing-persons case and a double killing

Prosecutors said the seizure grew out of the search for the two people reported missing. They said the maintenance chief’s job at the complex will be analyzed as one line of investigation. Expreso noted that no definitive link to the crimes has been established. The FGJES did not name the complex or the employee. Our earlier reports identified Iván Alejandro Morales Cano, 45, as the maintenance and projects manager at the Las Palomas resort community. The new reports do not mention Las Palomas.

Prosecutors also tied the investigation to an Oct. 4 shooting on Benito Juárez Boulevard that killed two men, both 27. They identified the men as Jesús Pedro Ángel “N” and Iván Antonio “N”; the second man died later in a hospital. No arrests in the vehicle case were reported, and no criminal group was named.

A September raid in Rocky Point also turned up vehicles reported stolen in the U.S. For travel conditions, see our Rocky Point safety page.

Sources

Reported Oct. 10, 2026, from the published sources above. The Narco Blog has not independently confirmed the details or reached Sonora authorities, the complex or the people involved. Prosecutors have not said who owned or parked the vehicles, and no one has been charged in connection with them.