Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, June 18, 2026 – State and federal forces carried out another security inspection on Wednesday at Ceinjure Costa Norte, the Puerto Vallarta prison complex near Ixtapa, nearly four months after 23 inmates escaped.
The June 17 operation was described as the fifth broad inspection at the prison since the February 22 crisis. Security teams entered modules, dormitories, workshops, and common areas to search for prohibited items, including weapons, drugs, phones, and tools that could undermine control within the facility.
Inspection focused on the Ixtapa prison
The operation included state police, prison staff, the Guardia Nacional and the Navy, according to reporting from the scene. A separate account of Wednesday’s sweep described visible security movement outside the complex during the morning.
The state’s public directory lists the Centro Integral de Justicia Regional Costa Norte at kilometer 6.5 on the Las Palmas-Ixtapa road in Puerto Vallarta. Local residents commonly refer to it as the Ixtapa prison.
The prison sits outside the tourist core, but it remains part of Puerto Vallarta’s public-safety map. Convoys and prison operations there can draw the attention of nearby neighborhoods and drivers using the Las Palmas-Ixtapa corridor.
February escape still shapes the response
The latest inspection follows the February 22 prison break, when 23 inmates escaped from the Puerto Vallarta facility. Jalisco Security Secretary Juan Pablo Hernández confirmed the figure the next day after a prison headcount.
“So far, the information available, after the roll call, is that 23 people are fugitives,” Hernández said at the time.
Hernández said criminal groups fired at the facility and used a vehicle to bring down a gate. Federal Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch later gave a different account, saying the escape began with an internal riot and that federal authorities were notified because the prison is operated by Jalisco.
Those public accounts have not been fully reconciled in the public record. Both descriptions, however, point to the same confirmed result: 23 inmates escaped, and a prison guard was killed.
Five inmates had been recaptured by February 27, according to Jalisco security information published at the time. By mid-March, public reporting still listed 17 inmates as fugitives. The June 17 inspection reports did not include a new official count.
PVDN previously covered the Puerto Vallarta prison break and the security questions it raised for state prison officials.
Earlier searches led to transfers
The latest sweep follows a May 26 operation in which seven inmates were moved from Puerto Vallarta to Puente Grande. Authorities identified them as suspected generators of violence inside the prison.
Six of those inmates were held in homicide cases. One was held in an aggravated robbery case, according to reports based on Jalisco security information.
That May review also found three metal points, a screwdriver, cables, a phone charger, a metal griddle, wooden sticks, a wooden object shaped like a rifle, compact discs, and clothing in colors not allowed under prison rules.
PVDN also reported on that earlier security sweep at the Puerto Vallarta prison and the later transfer of seven inmates to Puente Grande.
Wednesday’s inspection shows the prison remains under tighter review after the February escape. The unanswered question is whether the repeated searches are producing lasting control inside Ceinjure Costa Norte.
