Raids to find four day-laborers kidnapped last month led to the arrests of 11 drug dealers near Cancun, according to official disclosures this week.
The case began last month when unknown individuals kidnapped four men working in the construction site of a hotel called “Eden Rock,” part of the Hard Rock chain. Relatives of the missing men openly complained that officials were ignoring their cries for help since the initial kidnapping on September 14.
More than a month after the initial kidnapping, the Quintana Roo Attorney General’s office (FGE) announced they carried out a raid near the hotel site and they had arrested 11 street-level drug dealers. Authorities also carried out another operation days before and arrested two men in an SUV.
For the raid, state authorities had the help of the National Guard, the Mexican Army, and a federal kidnapping task force. Despite the described efforts by authorities, the four missing workers have not been found.
This week, the Quintana Roo FGE announced they would be improving security in the area and that construction would continue without interruption.
The kidnapping is not a new situation in the Cancun area. According to Infobae, in 2020, at least 20 workers went missing after trying to get work at the Planet Hollywood Hotel and Beach Resort. Soon after starting, the workers went missing for months until authorities began finding bodies. Only four have been found. One law enforcement theory suggests cartels are forcing workers to distribute drugs and pay daily protection fees.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “C.P. Mireles” from Tamaulipas.