Welcome to FlyerTalk. As we like to keep discussions contained by area / topic into specific fora, we will soon move this to the proper Forum, as it is not really about traveling on AA.

Most places in Mexico are like most places in the world - it may depend where you are in town. Mazatlan is one of those places that are important to Mexico's economy (tourism), and much of the development / tourism infrastructure is fine, spreading north of the city. Nice beaches, nice town itself - good places to eat and visit. I'd say Mazatlán, Puerto Vallarta, Cancún etc. are reasonably safe places to vacation in Mexico - though all three states they are located in have suffered from violence in some areas, as have Mexico City, Guadalajara, Cuernavaca... I'll be in Cancún and Isla Mujeres myself in July to spend some time with the whale sharks near Holbox.

OTOH, you'd not want to be out of town on the highway at night, or perhaps in some parts of town you'd not be visiting anyway. And on rare occasions, violence can come visiting - as in the article, when some pursued should turned into the parking lot of a prime hotel, much as one gets caught in a road accident because one is in the wrong place at the wrong time - but it's pretty random and not usual.

The state of Sinaloa has been a source of narcotraffic for decades - but most of it is away from places attracting the attention of the authorities (Mazatlán is a naval base, and the Naval police are possibly the strongest antinarco body in Mexico), or north and closer to the capital of Culiacán and into the sierra.

(I've spent a lot of time in that area, including camping on beaches and ner / in small towns, driving down dirt roads and in smaller communities on the coast - I'd not visit some of them these days, and I'd probably not want to spend much time at all in Culiacán. Mazatlán I'd still visit.)