El Frijolar Airport

The airport was closed as a direct result of Mexican military (SEDENA) counter-narcotics operations. Located in the heart of the 'Golden Triangle,' a region known for drug production and trafficking, El Frijolar served as a clandestine 'narco-airstrip' for the Sinaloa Cartel. The Mexican government's strategy to disrupt cartel logistics involves locating and disabling these runways by bombing, trenching, or cratering them to prevent aircraft from landing or taking off.

The site is abandoned and non-operational. Satellite imagery shows the faint outline of the former dirt runway, but it is unmaintained, overgrown, and unusable for aviation. The surrounding area remains a high-conflict zone with a significant and active military presence focused on eradicating drug cultivation and trafficking infrastructure. The physical location is essentially an abandoned piece of evidence of former cartel activity.

El Frijolar Airport had no history as a commercial or official civil aviation facility. Its significance is entirely linked to its role in organized crime. It was a strategic asset for the Sinaloa Cartel, located in the municipality of Badiraguato, the birthplace of several notorious drug lords, including Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán. The airstrip was used to:
- Transport narcotics (cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin) from production zones to staging areas near the U.S. border.
- Move weapons, cash, and personnel throughout cartel territory.
- Facilitate the escape of high-value individuals from military or law enforcement operations.
Operations typically involved small, versatile aircraft like Cessna 206s or similar models capable of using short, unprepared dirt runways.

There are zero prospects for reopening. The airstrip was never a legitimate facility and exists in a region where the government's official policy is to destroy, not repurpose, such infrastructure. Any attempt to repair or utilize the runway would be immediately identified by military surveillance and met with swift intervention.