Advertisement

Tourists panic after two people executed in front of luxury resorts

A commando of drug gang gunmen have executed two people from a rival gang in front of horrified tourists.

The shooting occurred at the resort of Puerto Morelos on Thursday as the group stormed ashore at the beach on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.

The dramatic shooting attack sent tourists scrambling for cover. The two suspected drug dealers had apparently arrived at the beach in front of the Azul Beach Resort and the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun earlier in the day, claiming it was now their territory.

Oscar Montes de Oca, the head prosecutor of Quintana Roos state, told the Radio Formula station about 15 people were involved in the assassination of the two men.

Mexican soldiers walk outside the Hyatt Ziva Riviera hotel in Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, after a shooting.
Mexican soldiers walk outside the Hyatt Ziva Riviera hotel after the shooting on Thursday. Source: Getty Images

Mr Montes de Oca’s office said earlier in a statement that “there was a clash between rival groups of drug dealers on a beach” near the hotels. Several cartels are fighting for the area’s lucrative retail drug trade, including the Jalisco cartel and the a gang allied with the Gulf cartel.

He said one of the men targeted in the attack fled into one of the hotels before dying. The other was killed on the beach. He also said one person suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the attack, but authorities could not determine whether that person was a hotel employee or a guest because they were still undergoing medical treatment.

Governor Carlos Joaquin said the commando wore ski masks and arrived by boat at the beach. Montes de Oca said they fled in a boat after the attack.

Mr Joaquin called the attack “a serious blow to the development and security of the state... putting the image of the state at grave risk”.

Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun is pictured.
The Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun. The beach here is where the shooting occurred. Source: Facebook/ Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun (file pic)

Horrified guests 'so scared, literally shaking'

The shootings were the latest chapter in drug gang violence that has sullied the reputation of Mexico’s Caribbean coast as a once-tranquil oasis.

Guests at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun posted videos and photos of tourists hiding or nervously milling in the lobby and hallways of hotels during the incident.

Guests at the nearby Azul Beach Resort also posted videos of people taking shelter or gathering in the lobby. An employee who answered the phone at the hotel said the shooting occurred on the beach near the facility.

Hotel guests hide in an empty room after shots were fired at a hotel in the beach resort of Cancun, Mexico.
Guests hide for cover from the gunshots inside a hotel. Source: Reuters

Mike Sington, a guest at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun, wrote in his Twitter account that “Guests are telling me they were playing volleyball on the beach, gunman approached firing gun. Everyone ran from beach and swimming pools. Staff hustled us into hidden rooms behind the kitchens."

“I’ve never been so scared, literally shaking," he tweeted before adding “I’m fine now, barricaded in my hotel room for the night, just trying to decompress.”

Another guest told CNN they were by the pool when they heard multiple gunshots.

“It went on for a little while and everyone dove for cover," they told CNN.

"We manned the entrances to the basement and were given metal sticks, even a pedestal bathroom sink, to defend ourselves.”

Hotel guests hide in a kitchen after shots were fired at a hotel in the beach resort of Cancun, Mexico.
Guests hide in a kitchen. Some reported arming themselves with metal sticks and other utensils. Source: Reuters

Shooting follows death of blogger, German tourist

Rival cartels often kill another gang's street-level dealers in Mexico to eliminate competition and ensure their drugs are sold first. It is not the first time that tourists have been caught in the crossfire of such battles.

The Puerto Morelos shooting comes two weeks after a California travel blogger and a German tourist were killed in a similar shootout in the beach town of Tulum.

A San Jose, California, woman born in India, Anjali Ryot, and German citizen Jennifer Henzold were apparently hit by crossfire from the October 20 drug dealers' shootout in Tulum, south of Puerto Morelos.

Three other foreign tourists were wounded in the shooting at a street-side eatery that has some outdoor tables, right off Tulum’s main strip. They included two German men and a Dutch woman.

The German Foreign Office issued a travel advisory about the violence, advising its citizens “if you are currently in the Tulum or Playa del Carmen area, do not leave your secured hotel facilities.”

The Tulum gunfight also apparently broke out between two groups that operate street-level drug sales in the area, according to prosecutors.

Montes de Oca said eight suspects in the Tulum attack had been detained in possession of firearms.

There have been signs that the situation in Quintana Roo state, where all the resorts are located, was out of control months ago. In June, two men were shot to death on the beach in Tulum and a third was wounded.

And in nearby Playa del Carmen, police staged a massive raid in October on the beach town’s restaurant-lined Quinta Avenida, detaining 26 suspects — most apparently for drug sales — after a city policewoman was shot to death and locked in the trunk of a car last week.

Prosecutors said on Friday they have arrested a suspect in that killing.

Crime “has gone up a little with extortion, with drug sales to foreigners and Mexicans,” the prosecutor's office said about the raid.

The administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has pinned its hopes on the so-called Maya Riviera, where it has announced plans to build an international airport and a stop for the Maya train, which will run in a loop around the Yucatan peninsula.

with The Associated Press

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.