Tourists hide as drug gang opens fire on Mexico beach
HOLIDAYMAKERS sipped cocktails on their sunbeds, children splashed in the sea and teenagers played beach volleyball in front of their luxury hotels on Mexico’s Caribbean coast when the gunmen came.
The idyllic scene in Cancun was shattered as a gang of drug commandos landed a boat on shore and started firing gunshots at a rival group, sending tourists, including Hollywood executives, running for their lives.
Guests of the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun and the Azul Beach Resort were ushered inside, told to lock their doors and barricade their rooms.
Many congregated in the hotel lobby, still in their swimming costumes, as staff tried to work out how to avoid the chaos unfolding outside.
It has now emerged that the raid on Thursday by a group of 15 balaclavaclad men was launched because a rival drug gang had claimed the Bahía Petempich territory as their own.
One suspected drug dealer was murdered on the beach while another was chased into a hotel and killed inside. Another person was injured.
The attackers fled the scene by boat and no arrests have yet been made. The shootout marks the latest chapter in gang violence that has sullied the reputation of Mexico’s Caribbean coast as a once-tranquil oasis – and raised concerns about the safety of visitors to the area.
Mike Sington, a retired Hollywood executive who was staying at the hotel, said that he had “never been so scared” during the raid.
After guests ran from the beach and swimming pool, “staff hustled us into hidden rooms behind the kitchens”, he said.
“I’m fine now, barricaded in my hotel room for the night, just trying to decompress.”
Carlos Joaquin, the state governor, called the attack “a serious blow to the development and security of the state ... putting the image of the state at grave risk”.
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.
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 Tulum gunfight also apparently broke out between two groups that operate street-level drug sales in the area, according to prosecutors.
The situation in Quintana Roo state, where the resorts are located, has been tense for months as the Mexican government appears to lose control of its war on drugs.
In June, two men were shot dead 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 dealing – after a policewoman was shot to death.