[imagesource:here]

Cancun, along with the likes of Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Cozumel, is considered one of the safest destinations in Mexico.

At the same time, it’s also known to be a landing spot for drugs coming from South America, which are often consumed with vigour by the tourists who frequent the area.

Sometimes, the dangerous world of drug smuggling and the tourism industry collide head-on, which was the case with a recent shooting that could be straight of a Jason Statham action movie.

Friday’s attack left two people dead and one tourist hospitalised with a bullet wound to the shoulder, reports VICE:

According to witnesses, a pair of assassins attacked the beach using a jet ski, firing 10 to 15 shots before fleeing across the turquoise waters that attract millions of tourists from around the world each year.

The victims, who died at the scene, were reportedly street vendors who sold craft goods to tourists. But many of those vendors double as small-scale drug dealers – feeding demand from tourists for marijuana and cocaine.

The shooting, which occurred in the afternoon of June 11, is believed to be the result of a territorial dispute between rival gangs.

The woman who was hit with a stray bullet was said to be relaxing under a palm-roofed hut while on vacation. She is believed to be American, but that has not been officially confirmed.

Police carried out a clean-up operation the following day, and later that night, shots were fired outside the state prosecutor’s office dedicated to combating small-scale drug trafficking.

It’s not known if there is a connection between the two shootings.

Let’s get back to the jet skis, which we’ve seen used with varying degrees of success in recent drug-smuggling efforts:

The use of jet skis by assassins is uncommon, but not without precedent. Across the country in Acapulco, one of Mexico’s most-violent cities, gunmen have made a number of attacks from the sea, including killing a street vendor and others in what authorities believe was also related to small-scale drug dealing.

Given what Mexican cartels have shown themselves to be capable of, I wouldn’t put any sort of attack past them.

[source:vice]