Just in time for spring break travel season, a chilling new warning to American tourists considering the warm, sunny beaches of Mexico. An American woman was killed earlier this month in crossfire between drug cartels near a popular beach in the Mexican resort of Tulum, while gunfire broke out on a beach in Cancun last week, sending tourists scrambling. The resort areas once considered off-limits to the cartels are now fair game in their turf wars. "This is happening throughout Mexico right now, and it's all because of the drug trafficking," says Jay Armes, Texas-based private investigator, in an interview with Fox News. "The drug traffickers are fighting each other over territory."
The drug traffickers Armes speaks of are the powerful cartels which control the drug trade in Mexico. He says the explosion in tourism in areas like Tulum and Cancun in recent years due to travel bloggers and social media has created a whole new market for the drug trade. "Multiple cartels now have people in place selling drugs to the tourists," he says. "I can tell you for a fact they're selling drugs out of the bathrooms in those tourist areas."
"So now, multiple cartels are fighting for that same customer base," he continues. "You know, we see them as tourists, but the drug cartels see them as either potential customers, or potential victims."
With the Mexican government and the Biden administration largely turning a blind eye to the cartels, the responsibility lies with travelers to do their homework before making any vacation plans south of the border. "To us, (the violence and killings) is horrifying, it's newsworthy...but to the people in Mexico, it's a Tuesday...it's something that happens all the time," says Armes.
Photo: Bloomberg