Homicides in Mexico reached a record-level of 33,341 in 2018, up nearly 33 percent since the previous year, according to official statistics released Monday from the Interior Ministry, a result of the ongoing toll of the country's drug war, AFP reports.

The report comes a day after a Mexican journalist was found murdered in Mexico City. Rafael Murua, a community radio station director in the northern state of Baja California Sur, was found in a ditch late Sunday after being reported missing. He had received death threats for his work as of last year. More than 100 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 2000.

The 33,341 homicides were the most since national record-keeping began in 1997, the government said. The previous record was in 2017 at 25,036.

Murders in Mexico skyrocketed after the government controversially deployed its army to fight drug trafficking in 2006. More than 200,000 people have been murdered since.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in December with a promise to curb the gruesome violence.

On Sunday, he said Mexico must put an end to corruption to "purify the public life of the country."

• Fear and Zeal Over More Guns in Violence-Plagued Brazil
• Investigators: Gang Has Killed Hundreds in US