Two Canadians — one of them sought by Interpol — have been found dead of knife wounds in Mexico’s Caribbean coast resort of Playa del Carmen, the state prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.
Prosecutors in Quintana Roo state, also home to resort towns like Cancun and Tulum, said the man and the woman were found dead on Monday at a hotel or condominium in the troubled resort, and a third person was reported injured.
There was no immediate information on their names or hometowns. But prosecutors confirmed the male victim was on an Interpol wanted list for fraud charges.
“Global Affairs Canada is aware of the death of two Canadian citizens in Mexico,” the department said in a statement.
“Consular officials stand ready to provide consular assistance to families, and are in contact with local authorities to gather additional information,” the statement said. “Due to privacy considerations, no additional information can be provided.”
Playa del Carmen has been hit by several instances of violence involving foreigners, most recently in January, when two Canadians were killed at a local resort, apparently because of debts between international drug and weapons trafficking gangs.
In March, police in Playa del Carmen found the bodies of four men dumped near a housing development. The fact the bodies were left together in the shrubs beside an access road suggested a gangland-style killing.
There have been a series of brazen acts of violence elsewhere along Mexico’s resort-studded Mayan Riviera coast, the crown jewel of the country’s tourism industry.
In November, a shootout on the beach of Puerto Morelos, just north of Playa del Carmen, left two suspected drug dealers dead.
Authorities said some 15 gunmen were from a gang that apparently disputed control of drug sales there.
In late October, farther south in the laid-back destination of Tulum, two tourists — one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German — were caught in the apparent crossfire of rival drug dealers and killed.
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