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FROM brutal beheadings to violent kidnappings, the cartel wars of Mexico’s Caribbean coast has unleashed horror as gangsters wreak havoc yards away from luxury resorts.
Violent drug gangs are waging a bloody war in the tourist haven of Quintana Roo – visited by thousands of Brit holidaymakers each year seeking paradise.
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Half a million UK tourists visit each year to areas like Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum.
But the stretch of paradise is blighted by cartels battling for power and territory.
SUN, SEA AND SLAUGHTER
In recent years, Brit holiday hotspots in the country have been plagued with grisly murders by gang members.
The murderous gangsters have been creeping out of the Mexican barrios, or neighbourhoods, and closer to the tourist enclaves.
But all have become brutal warzones as the cartels attempt to gain power and territory – putting tourists in the crossfire.
Tourists have bared witness to assassins executing their rivals and even gunning down holidaymakers.
The state where popular holiday destinations are located, dubbed Quintana Roo, has seen an unbelievable 633 murders last year.
This unbelievable figure is a 6.4 per cent increase to 2022 and more than in the whole of the UK.
The Foreign Office warns that several tourists have been affected by gang-relating shooting since 2021.
Just last week a group of assassins gunned down a man in a horror attack on a packed Cancun beach before fleeing on jet skis.
The 30-year-old victim was shot dead by four armed thugs in front of terrified tourists at the five-star Hotel Riu on Wednesday morning.
Two of the gunmen fled the scene on jet skis while the other two left on foot.
Shocked holidaymakers ran for cover as the killers attacked the man who has been identified as a Mexican national, according to local media.
Shortly after the attack, the hotel released a statement to clarify the victim was not a hotel guest or an employee.
The man was reportedly in charge of the jet skis, Turquesa news reports.
Among those killed by Mexican cartels have also been Brits, including estate agent Chris Cleave, who was shot dead in front of his 14-year-old daughter.
Chris, from Cornwall, had just driven out of his gated community in Playa del Carmen when he was killed and had received death threats before he was assassinated.
He is thought to have been targeting for standing up to extortion attempts by a cartel.
Two arrests were made over Mr Cleave’s death, a 30-year-old and 18-year-old.
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STRAY BULLETS
A few months ago 12-year-old boy was shot dead by gunmen who also fled on jet skis in Cancun.
The child, only named as Santiago, was sitting with his family at Caracol Beach when he was struck by multiple stray bullets.
He was treated at the scene and rushed to hospital, where he later died, with the Quintana Roo State Attorney General’s Office saying the assailants were targeting rivals over drug sales.
In March last year, two Americans were murdered in the crossfire of two gangs, with two others in the group taken as hostages.
The group of four had travelled through a region labelled as dangerous by the US government when they were ambushed.
In an odd turn of events, cartel gunmen left a letter accusing those who killed the Americans of breaking cartel rules.
It’s thought the Americans were killed by members of the Scorpions Group.
Three women are still missing after travelling from Texas into Mexico two weeks ago to sell clothes.
Sisters Maritza Trinidad Perez Rios and Marina Perez Rios have disappeared with their friend Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz.
ACAPULCO’S DESCENT TO HELL
The popular beach resort town of Acapulco is ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
Acapulco once embodied the glamour of the jet age – an easy-going paradise resort loved by Hollywood pin-ups and royalty.
But the “Pearl of the Pacific” is now plagued by sickening cartel violence and is so dangerous locals reportedly take guns to the beach.
Up to 20 criminal gangs including El Chapo’s Sinaloa mob are said to be fighting a bloody turf war for control of nearby poppy fields.
The once-thriving tourist town is now among the most violent places in the world, with the second-highest murder rate in Mexico – more than one per 1,000 people every year.
The US government warns its citizens should not go anywhere in the Guerrero region and has banned all government officials from visiting Acapulco.
The UK’s Foreign Office also warns against all travel to Guerrero – with the exception of Acapulco – due to spiralling violence across the state.
A series of recent horrors have thrown the spotlight back on the idyllic party town’s descent into hell.
In July 2023, a well-known Mexican journalist was executed in his car outside a shop in broad daylight.
And in January the same year, five dismembered bodies were found stuffed in plastic bags in a village just outside Acapulco.
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In 2022 the butchered and bloody corpses of three men have washed up on a popular beach, horrifying visitors.
Tourists at the famous Mexican beach resort of Acapulco filmed the gruesome discovery.
One of the bodies had its hand and foot tied to a cement anchor.
The second was lying face-up in the sand.
State prosecutors were alerted and removed the bodies, but kept the beach open.
The following morning, a third body was discovered just two kilometres away on Icacos beach.
Since 2012 – when murders peaked at 100 a month – the city has had the unfortunate nickname “Guerrero’s Iraq”.
Locals are said to fear going outside at all, and many go armed for their own protection.
Experts say the violence erupted after dominant drugs cartels fragmented into a number of rival gangs.
Large parts of central and southwestern Mexico were once ruled by the Beltran Leyva Organisation (BLO), in partnership with El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel.
But in the late 2000s they began fighting each other, and then the BLO splintered into a number of vicious offshoot mobs.
MEXICO’S HOLIDAY GOLDEN AGE
Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley had big hits singing about Acapulco – an international byword for relaxed glamour in the jet age.
Its fame spread after the Duke of Windsor visited in 1920 – followed by hoteliers and foreign investors.
By the 1940s it was the favoured resort of the biggest names of Hollywood’s golden age.
One photo shows screen siren Rita Hayworth’s 28th birthday party on board Errol Flynn’s yacht in 1946.
Hayworth’s husband Orson Welles – pictured beside her – filmed his movie The Lady From Shanghai in the resort.
John F Kennedy and his bride Jackie – the closest the US had to royalty – honeymooned in Acapulco in 1953.
And Elizabeth Taylor married her 3rd husband Mike Todd there in 1957, with Debbie Reynolds as matron of honour and Eddie Fisher as best man.
More than 10,000 flowers were flown in for the opulent ceremony held at the villa of Mexico’s former president.
“The resort is becoming the new sun spa for the international big rich and their attendant swingers,” Time magazine reported in 1966.
It added breathlessly: “Already, Baron and Baroness Guy de Rothschild have bought a house, the Loel Guinnesses have just built one, the Clint Murchisons are just finishing one, the Samuel Newhouses are renting one, and the Douglas Fairbankses Jr are looking for one.
“Mexican millionaire Melchior Perusquia Jr is spending $5,000,000 to build a private development for what he calls ‘the best people in the world’, including Walt Disney and Frank Sinatra, who last month bought another Acapulco house.”
Sinatra once flew his pals in for a secret birthday party and went back to visit dozens of times.
The tourist boom turned this sleepy town of 5,000 into a bustling city of two million in a few decades.
It was even the subject of the Four Tops 1988 novelty hit Going Loco Down In Acapulco which sang about how “the magic” in the town was “so strong”.
Although the glamour faded, Acapulco continued to be one into the world’s most famous holiday destinations, known for its beautiful people and party vibe late into the 20th century.
Its decline began when package holidays took millions of tourists to the new boom resorts such as Cancun on the east coast.
Now the “magic” has been replaced by hideous bloodshed, revenge and fear.
Local businesses that rely on tourism have tried to rebuild its reputation for carefree fun.
But they have been left in despair after spiralling crime forced foreign governments to issued stark warnings to visitors.
Armed guards and soldiers are stationed outside the bigger hotels, but far from reassuring visitors it only reminds them of the danger, an ex-mayor said.
There a few international visitors these days, with most tourists coming from elsewhere in Mexico.
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