Cancun Deaths: 8 Bodies Found In Streets, US Issues Mexico Travel Advisory

The State Department issued a level two travel advisory for Mexico after eight bodies were found in the resort town of Cancun, a major attraction for tourists on the Caribbean coast. At least two bodies were found dismembered, prosecutors said, while at least three others were found with gunshot wounds.

The bodies of a man and a woman were discovered in the early hours of Monday inside a trunk of an abandoned taxi in the Chedraui de la Multiplaza shopping mall in the Paseos del Mar subdivision, the Riviera Maya News reported. The driver of the car reportedly fled after leaving the taxi in the parking lot. The identities of the two victims were unknown.

On Tuesday, a man's body was found bound and shot to death, while another man was killed while lying in a hammock. A third male body was found shot and covered in a plastic bag, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Dismembered bodies of two other victims were found by police inside a plastic bag at another location. The bodies, which were not identified, were discovered on Rancho Viejo avenue, according to Mexican news organization EJE Central.

Details on the eighth killing were not immediately available. Prosecutors said each incident seemed to be separate but an investigation is underway to find more details on the cases.

“While most of these homicides appeared to be targeted, criminal organization assassinations, turf battles between criminal groups have resulted in violent crime in areas frequented by U.S. citizens,” the State Department said in the advisory Tuesday.

Travelers were advised not to travel to Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas states due to the increased crime. Cancun’s beach-side hotel zone was left out of it, since none of the killings occurred in that area, AP reported.

Millions of foreign tourists, especially from the U.S. and Europe, visit Cancun and other nearby resorts such as Playa del Carmen and Tulum each year.

Cancun has also experienced an uptick in homicides in recent years. Late last month, at least five people were killed and three others wounded in a shootout between police and criminals near Cancun, local officials said. The incident took place when unidentified gunmen opened fire after breaking into an enclosure next to a restaurant in Puerto Juarez, the Quintana Roo state prosecutor's office said in a preliminary report.

Fifty-seven murders were reported in April this year of which 14 homicide cases -- believed to be drug-related -- occurred within a 36-hour time frame near main tourists attractions, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Since early 2017, there has been an increased turf war between drug gangs in Quintana Roo.