KJZZ

The U.S. State Department has ordered its consular employees to use only armored cars when driving in the Mexican state of Sonora.

KJZZ'S Michel Marizco reports.

State Department employees working along 600 miles of Sonora's border with Arizona must now use armored cars and if they have to head any further south, they must stick to the highway and travel only during daylight hours.

The U.S. Consulate in Hermosillo issued the new advisory last week and also told its staff not to drive south into the state of Sinaloa, long regarded the hub of organized crime in Mexico.

Consular officials say the new orders were handed down due to violence in Nogales and along the Arizona-Sonora border. Two State Department employees were murdered in Cd. Juárez last spring but no consular staff have been killed in Sonora.

In Tucson, I'm Michel Marizco.