The small town on the coast of the Gulf of California has long been a popular vacation spot for Arizonans -- but not so much in recent years as news streams north of extreme smuggling gang violence. Mexico tourism is down in general, and far fewer people have been driving down to Rocky Point, known in Mexico as Puerto Penasco.

If you want the full scoop, read our February feature article about Rocky Point, Scarecation. We found the place nearly empty in December, and only slightly more full of tourists in February, just before the universities went on spring break. New Times explored the evidence of recent violence, including a slaying last August at a popular boat dock.

All told, said Mexican Attorney General Arturo Chavez, 30,196 people have died in the drug wars since President Felipe Calderon took office four years ago.

And that's just in Mexico. The ruthless drug trade is also responsible for plenty of homicides in Arizona and other states - as Tuesday's slaying of a Border Patrol officer near Nogales exemplifies.

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​Lone Wolf Trading Company

The Post conducted its own Wikileaks-like expose, apparently, defying a 2003 federal law that's supposed to keep the names of gun dealers hidden from the public.

Two other Arizona stores made the list: J&G Sales in Prescott and Sprague's Sports in Yuma.

Most of the stores on the list were Texas. 

Nothing like a peaceful round of golf in Sonora, Mexico -- just be sure to finish up well before dark, says the State Department

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The State Department has issued an updated travel warning about Mexico, urging visiting Americans to be ultra-cautious because of all the drug-related violence.

The announcement supercedes a previous warning in May and comes after extreme, new violence -- including a Sonoran gun battle between rival gangs that left 21 people dead (two charred heads were found on a cemetary fence near the Arizona border on the same day) and an Iraqi-style car bombing in Juarez.

Most of the trouble can be found just south of Texas, especially in Juarez, the report says. Tijuana, just over the border from San Diego, is also a violence hotspot.

Media outlets are reporting that the skirmish between rival gangs took place Thursday morning on a dirt road between Tubutama and Saric, about 30 miles southwest of Nogales, Sonora.

On the same day, reports the Nogales International, two charred, human heads were found hanging on fence at the Del Rosario Cemetary, near the Arizona border. Next to the heads was a cardboard sign to warn another smuggling gang.