Four dead in drug-related shooting on Mexico beach in Cancun

Mexico has been ravaged by cartel-related bloodshed that has killed more than 300,000 people since 2006.

A shooting involving suspected drug dealers has left four people dead on a beach in Mexico’s popular Caribbean resort town of Cancun.

The latest outbreak of violence in the city’s hotel zone on Monday came as tourists flock to Mexico’s Riviera Maya during the Easter holiday.

Authorities have detained two suspects “apparently linked to drug trafficking,” said Jose de la Pena, a security official in Cancun’s Quintana Roo state.

Mexico has been ravaged by cartel-related bloodshed that has killed more than 300,000 people since the government deployed the military in the so-called war on drugs in 2006.

Although Quintana Roo is generally considered safer than much of the rest of the country, there has been an increase in violence related to gang wars in recent years, leading security forces to step up patrols.

In October 2021, two tourists from Germany and India were killed in a shootout between suspected gang members at a restaurant in the seaside town of Tulum.

The following month, two suspected drug dealers were killed in a shooting that saw tourists in swimsuits flee in panic from a beach near Cancun.