An Army and National Guard operation arrested the leader of the Sinaloa cartel in Cancun, Quintana Roo early Saturday morning. Héctor Elías Flores Aceves, El 15, worked for Los Chapitos, one of the factions of the Sinaloa Mafia, and is considered by the authorities to be the leader of the city’s square, the tourist jewel of the Mexican Caribbean. An area that attracts millions of tourists every year and which, in the heat of money, has been suffering from the ravages of organized crime for some time.
The arrest of El 15 was conducted in the city of Guamúchil, Sinaloa, and he was later transferred to Cancun to be available to the judge. Since April, the Quintana Roo Attorney’s Office had issued an arrest warrant and a reward of half a million pesos for him. State authorities have accused him of being responsible for the killing of four people at a hotel in the city earlier this month.
One morning in the middle of Holy Week, authorities found the bodies of four people on the beach in front of the luxury Fiesta Americana Condesa hotel in Cancun, one of Mexico’s busiest vacation spots for national and international tourists. Security forces were at the scene after an 911 call reported three people with gunshot wounds lying on the sand of one of the city’s most exclusive beaches.
Recently, there have been a number of events surrounding the drug brand in the region. In January last year, the manager of a resort was murdered in the resort’s bathroom. Earlier, two Canadian tourists were killed in a shooting at the Xcaret Hotel, the famous theme park in Playa del Carmen. And in early November 2021, an armed squad broke into another nearby luxury hotel and murdered two people at the front desk.
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