Tainted alcohol seized in crackdown at Mexican resorts
Some tourists have reported blackouts
Mexican authorities swept through 31 resorts, restaurants and nightclubs in Cancún and Playa del Carmen in recent days, suspending operations at two for unsanitary alcohol and in the process discovered a sketchy manufacturer that was supplying tourist hot spots.
Regulators seized 10,000 gallons of illicit alcohol from the company, noting its “bad manufacturing practices,” according to government officials. They did not release the company’s name.
Among those suspended: the lobby bar in the Iberostar Paraiso Maya, a resort in the complex where Abbey Conner, a 20- year- old Wisconsin woman, drowned amid suspicious circumstances while on vacation with her family in January.
Other vacationers later told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network, they had blacked out and been assaulted at the resort after drinking at the beach and pool bars.
Regulators also temporarily shut down Fat Tuesday, a bar in Cancún.
They seized 90 gallons of illicit alcohol from the two places, including some from Iberostar’s lobby bar that was unlabeled.
“It’s needed. There is obviously stuff going on that needs to be cleaned up,” said Ginny McGowan, Abbey Conner’s mother.
The crackdown follows an investigation by the Journal Sentinel that exposed how dozens of travelers to some upscale, allinclusive resorts around Cancún and Playa del Carmen have been blacking out after drinking small and moderate amounts of alcohol. Some have been assaulted and robbed; all reported little or no recollection of what happened.
An attorney hired by Conner’s family noted in a report given to the family in July that “low quality” alcohol was being served and mixed at Iberostar’s Paraiso del Mar bar where Conner and her brother, Austin, had been drinking before they were found floating in the pool.
Austin, then 22, awoke with a concussion and gash on his forehead and no memory of what happened.
The Mexican government has long been aware of the country’s problems with counterfeit and otherwise illicit alcohol. As much as 36% of the alcohol consumed in the country is illegal, according to a report this year by Euromonitor International. That means the alcohol is sold or produced under unregulated circumstances and is potentially dangerous.