Cartel Killings Continue to Plague Cancun, Surrounding Areas

Cartel killings and kidnappings continue to plague Cancun and the surrounding areas as cartel criminal organizations continue to battle. The groups tied to factions of the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel Jalisco New Generation are fighting for control of the region’s lucrative drug distribution and other businesses catering to tourists.

Due to the healthy number of tourists that continue to arrive in Cancun and surrounding hotspots like Playa Del Carmen, Tulum, and Isla Mujeres, the violence in the region continues. The cartels try to keep or gain control of local drug distribution, sex trade, liquor trade, and other tourist geared commodities. Additionally, drug cartels have a history of extorting local businesses for protection money or forcing them, in the case of bars or restaurants, to sell drugs.

Earlier this week a group of gunmen dumped a severed human head in Cancun with a message threatening Lourdes Espin Alarco, the local police chief in Isla Mujeres. According to the local news outlet NotiCaribe, neighbors called 911 and authorities responded to the Supermanzana (Block 204) to document the crime scene. The case was the second severed human head that had been dumped by gunmen in two days in or near Cancun. Additionally, on Monday, gunmen dumped a dismembered body that body did not have a head.

The message accused the local police chief of working with a man named El 15. She allegedly provided protection to his criminal group in exchange for bribes, Infobae reported.

According to the Quintana Roo Attorney General’s Office, El 15 is Hector Elias Flore Aceves, a lieutenant with the Sinaloa Cartel, who has been linked to several murders in Cancun and surrounding areas.

La #FGEQuintanaRoo ofrece recompensa de 1 millón de pesos, para dar con el paradero de Héctor Elías Flores Aceves alías ‘El 15’, ‘Pantera’ y/o ‘Rey’, se busca por estar involucrado con los homicidios registrados en el km 16.5 del Boulevard Kukulcán del municipio de #BenitoJuarez pic.twitter.com/dF00iJwJj2

— Fiscalía General del Estado de Quintana Roo (@FGEQuintanaRoo) April 4, 2023

On Friday, a group of gunmen shot and killed a man in a low-income neighborhood called Maya in the city of Tulum. The gunmen also injured a woman in the attack. While no arrests have been made in that case, the local news outlet NotiCaribe reported 43 killings in Tulum since the start of the year. The city has a population of approximately 33,000. On Thursday, authorities found the body of an unidentified man who had been kidnapped earlier in the day. Unknown gunmen left the victim’s body in an abandoned construction site in the Doctores neighborhood of Cancun.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and their original Spanish. This article was written by “C.P. Mireles” from Tamaulipas.