Cancún narco violence claims fifth victim in 2012

Taxi stolen and used by execution team minutes later, as warring cartels duke it out

Puerto Morelos, Quitana Roo - In this sunny seaport 20 miles south of Cancún, the largest harbor in Q.R. state, a taxi driver lost his vehicle and two men lost their lives Friday afternoon.

The events unfolded about 4:30 p.m. when a taxista was flagged down by three men who asked to be taken to a certain location. When they got there the men seized the driver, bound and gagged him and took off with the cab. He freed himself and summoned police.

Within minutes officers located the taxi nor far away. Alerted by a banging noise coming from the trunk, they opened it and discovered two men who had been shot in the head. One of the victims was already dead. The second, who police say was 18, was gravely wounded and expired soon after at a local hospital. A narcomensaje, or executioner's warning, was left with the victims, both of whom had been bound and shot with a .9 mm handgun. Their bodies showed evidence of beating and torture.

Cancún area authorities say these are the fourth and fifth narco executions since Jan. 1. A war between two vicious cartels - Los Zetas, who are powerful all over Mexico, and Los Pelones, a local upstart group known for contract murders - is being furiously waged in Quintana Roo state.

It's become voguish of late with executioners in this area to kill their victims after placing them in trunks, or at least to leave their remains there. The Spanish press refers to such unfortunates as los encajuelados - literally, the "trunked ones."

Postscript: Police say that these victims were nothing more than small time independent drug dealers, known as chapulines, without connection to any cartel. That's what got them executed. Being a sole proprietor on the street in Cancún can lead to a quick death sentence.

Apr. 29, 2012 - A contract executioner who worked for both Los Pelones and Los Matazetas has confessed to these murders, say Cancún police. He was arrested April 25.
Los Pelones killer in Cancún also may have been hit man for Los Matazetas: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/04/los-pelones-killer-arrested-in-cancun.html.

Taxi drivers, Mérida police on edge after latest murder of local cabbie: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2012/01/murder-of-another-taxi-driver-has.html.
Cancún, Riviera Maya, under the thumb of los narcos: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2012/02/mexicos-caribbean-riviera-maya-in-hands.html.
Los Zetas control half of Mexico, including Yucatán, says top prosecutor: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2012/01/yucatan-and-half-of-mexico-belong-to.html.