Sinaloa's cartel chief revealed on Canadian television how narco works on the Riviera Maya

Thanks to the six million people who visit its beaches and archaeological areas each year, Cancun has become Mexico's main tourist center. However, in the last two years, the violence generated by drug trafficking has increased unprecedented, and in January 2019, the most dramatic decline in the number of visitors was recorded in seven years.

In an interview for the Canadian newspaper CTV News, an alleged leader of the Sinaloa cartel in Quintana Roo explained the operation of the drug market on the Riviera Maya. The man, identified as "Manuel", He added that part of his job was to send about 300 kilograms of cocaine a month to the neighboring country of the north, each worth approximately 15 million pesos.

He also pointed out that the interest in the dominance of Cancun and Playa del Carmen was due to increased security on the northern border and increased costs badociated with the pbadage of cargo. Cancún represented, according to its version, a cheaper way to transfer goods.

Members of the Quintana Roo Tourism Promotion Board (Cptqroo) criticized the report – stating that there was currently no Canadian government warning or travel alert – and questioned their credibility by explaining that the questions and answers to the respondents were essential sources "they seem to be clearly based on a script"

"Due to the questionable reasons of this report, sources, clearly biased arguments, language designed to attract the public and not to inform travelers, we are obliged to respond with facts, context and our perspective so that viewers can have more information to objectively evaluate the report", said Cptqroo spokespeople.

They also took the opportunity to ask the Canadian community "trust your own judgment, your experiences and recommendations from travel experts and millions of Canadians who continue to visit the state of Quintana Roo every year"

Low outdoor tourism

The Cancun International Airport announced that Cancun had visited 1,513,106 pbadengers. This represented 30,315 fewer pbadengers compared to the same month in 2018.

Some experts in this field, such as the journalist Ricardo Ravelo, have described the drug market in Cancún as "the most dynamic" activity in recent years. Cartels like this one Sinaloa, the Gulf and Jalisco New Generation, have been identified as agents of this new bloody wave.

Various reports have indicated that since the 90s, Cancún had become one of the drug entry gates coming from South America, launched to the sea by small planes. "Bombing", as it was known from this method, was very common in the 90s. Since then, the Riviera Maya was known as "The Caribbean Road".

In fact, some domestic and foreign businessmen were linked by drugs to the construction of huge hotel complexes. This money laundering network was discovered during an investigation conducted by the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) and the DEA, the US anti-drug agency. The case, known as The maxprocessThis was one of the largest surveys in the history of Mexico.

According to the 2016 National Addictions Survey, he points out that in Quintana Roo Marijuana use is higher than in any other state, with 13.8% of the population, while the national average is 8.6%

The state also ranks third in terms of cocaine use at 5.8%, while the national average for cocaine use is 3.5%.