Authorities in Mexico are investigating the daylight shooting of a man outside a luxury beach resort in Cancun in what prosecutors are calling a “targeted attack.”
The man, a Mexican national, was killed after two people approached him in Cancun’s Hotel Zone and shot him to death, the attorney general’s office for the state of Quintana Roo wrote in a press release.
A blurred photo of the crime scene published by Riviera Maya News shows the man’s body lying in the sand. Witnesses told police that the two suspects walked up to the man on the beach, shot him several times, then boarded jet skis and fled.
The identity of the deceased man has not been released by authorities.
A spokesperson for RIU Hotels & Resorts told Global News that the incident occurred in front of the Riu Palace Las Americas hotel. The man who was killed was not a guest or employee, the hotel chain said, and no guests or staff members were harmed in the shooting.
Prosecutors later revealed that the man who was killed may have been involved in an earlier shooting in Cancun’s Hotel Zone and that the crimes could be tied to the drug trade.
On July 28, a minor was shot and killed in the same area. Authorities believe the man gunned down Wednesday was one of two suspects who arrived at the beach on a jet ski, shot the child, then fled the scene.
“The now deceased was allegedly driving the jet ski,” that day, prosecutors wrote.
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The Associated Press reported at the time that a 12-year-old boy was killed on a beach in Cancun after he was caught in the middle of a dispute between rival drug dealers. The boy was a local resident who was with his family at the beach when he was apparently hit by stray bullets. He later died in the hospital.
The case of the child’s murder may also be connected to an even earlier crime, a bus shooting on July 1. Prosecutors say two people were killed on a bus that was travelling on Kukulcan Boulevard, the main road that passes through Cancun’s Hotel Zone.
After Wednesday’s shooting, multiple agencies responded to the scene, including the navy, army personnel, the National Guard and municipal police.
RIU Hotels said staff members on the ground “immediately activated the security and emergency protocols, working closely with the municipal and state authorities to provide timely attention to the injured person.”
The hotel chain also reiterated its “commitment to the safety and well-being of our guests, employees and the community.”
Territorial disputes between drug dealers have cost the lives of several tourists in the resorts along Mexico’s Caribbean coast in recent years.
In 2022, two Canadians were killed in Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun, apparently because of debts between international drug and weapons trafficking gangs.
In 2021, further south in Tulum, two tourists — one a California travel blogger born in India and a German national — were killed when they apparently were caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival drug dealers.
The government of Canada does not have a standing alert for the Quintana Roo region, where Cancun is located, but warns that all travellers to Mexico should “exercise a high degree of caution.”
“There are high rates of violent crime, such as homicides, kidnappings, carjacking and assaults, including in popular tourist destinations such as the Mayan Riviera (Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Morelos and Tulum), and Acapulco,” the advisory states.
“Criminal groups and drug cartels are present in tourist areas. Inter-gang and cartel fighting has taken place in restaurants, hotels and nightclubs frequented by tourists.”
— With files from The Associated Press
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
