Mexican authorities discovered four dead bodies in the hotel zone near the beach in Cancun, Mexico on Monday, April 3. 

Jose Pablo Mathey Cruz, the Public Security Secretary for Benito Juarez municipality, said all the victims were Mexican nationals allegedly involved in the sale and distribution of narcotics.

Two suspects were arrested after local authorities reviewed footage from local security cameras. The deaths are under investigation, and the cause of death has not yet been released.

According to the prosecutor’s office, police found three bodies in a lot near one of the beachside hotels on Kukulcan Boulevard, Cancun, on Monday, April 3. They later found a fourth body in the same lot.

Polo Gallegos, a tourist at a nearby gym at the time of the incident, said that he heard shots ring out at around 10 am local time and was kept in an office until the incident was over. Everyone in the gym hid in the office until authorities secured the area. He said that after the shooting, several security agencies responded to the scene, including the police and the Navy, which made the tourists quite nervous.

Last week, an American tourist was shot in the leg at Puerto Morelos. Authorities still don’t know the motive behind the shooting. The wounded man was transported to a hospital in Cancun, where he was treated for his injuries.

The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert about Mexico, warning travelers to be cautious at the country’s Caribbean beach resorts, especially after dark, because of the recent spike in drug gang violence.

Cancun’s security situation has deteriorated in recent years. In 2021, the Mexican government announced that the National Guard would permanently deploy to the area following a spike in violence linked to organized crime.

This latest incident is one of a series of daring acts of violence along the Caribbean coast.

Two Canadian nationals were murdered in their hotel room in Playa del Carmen last year, while two American tourists were killed in Tulum in 2021 after getting caught in a gunfight between rival drug dealers.