Another person has been added to the sad list of victims of the war between drug cartels in the tropical paradise of Cancun, Mexico. A British real estate agent, a permanent resident of the area, was shot in cold blood in Cancun just a year after his partner was murdered for standing up to the drug cartels vying for control of the popular resort.
He refused the cartels' "protection" and was murdered in cold blood
According to the Daily Mail, Chris Cleve, 54, was shot in the head while driving his red Audi in the Mexican resort of Playa del Carmen, Cancun, on Saturday. The real estate agent, originally from Truro, Cornwall, was shot dead in front of his 14-year-old daughter, who was also shot twice, but survived.
He was ambushed and shot by two locals who have already been arrested as suspects, 30-year-old Jose Guadalupe and 17-year-old Lenny Vladimir. A year earlier, on 21.3.2021, Cleve's partner Vitaly Fagin, 57, was similarly murdered as he drove home. Police believe the two murders are linked
Both men were allegedly murdered because they resisted extortion by a drug cartel that wanted to sell them "protection" for the restaurant the two partners operated in Playa del Carmen.
Authorities' investigations are geared in that direction, as police said initial evidence indicates that Cleve refused to pay money for "protection" or allow drug trafficking at the restaurant called "El Bistro," which he and his partner operated and is located in a luxury gated community called Playacar, where some of the wealthiest people in the area have homes and many tourists stay.
The restaurant - once notorious and full of a select clientele - is now closed, with the shutters down. Police said there was no evidence to suggest the estate agent was in any way involved in drugs other than refusing to sell them inside his business.
In fact, a police source said: "The killers didn't even know why he was targeted and why they killed him; they would have just ordered them to commit the murder and not ask questions."
While police arrested the two suspects immediately after Cleve's murder on Saturday, they have yet to arrest any suspects in Fagin's murder a year ago. The fact that the two partners died under the same circumstances suggests that the same person ordered the execution, the police source said.
Both men were in their cars when gunmen approached and opened fire. Fagin's killing is another of several unsolved murders in Playa del Carmen , where gang violence is rampant: just this week the dismembered bodies of two people were found in black garbage bags dumped on the side of the road.
The killings in Playa del Carmen , where 550 people vacation.000 Britons a year are a daily occurrence with 650 people murdered in the state of Quintana Roe in 2021.
Photos taken by the MailOnline website show Fagin slumped in the front seat of his car having been shot several times. His driver was also killed with the killers firing from a motorcycle - the same way Cleve was killed as he waited at a busy intersection on the outskirts of Playa del Carmen.Quintana state prosecutor Oscar Montez de Orca Rosales confirmed that in the past Chris Cleve had been threatened by drug cartels.
Cartels openly threaten even with banners on walls
The first serious evidence that the restaurant owners were being threatened and blackmailed came a few days before Fagin's death, , when a "narcomanta" a banner the cartels use to send a deadly warning - was posted on a building near their restaurant for all to see.
The message, written in Spanish, read: "We're coming for you and your damn store. Also for you Chris , in the red Audi. Shut your mouth before you find yourself shredded in a bag. The Playacar will be your prison because we're waiting for you outside."
Friends of the victim said Cleve was determined not to let the drug cartel kick him out of his home after living in Mexico for 23 years. A friend said Cleve stopped using the red Audi in hopes of not drawing attention to the cartel bosses and their hired killers.
"The banner was a message to get out of town and he just stopped using the car to avoid drawing attention to himself," the friend said. As soon as I heard Chris had been murdered, I knew he was connected to Vitaly's murder.
He was executed a year ago and everyone knew he was from a drug cartel. Vitaly wouldn't back down, he wouldn't give in to the cartels and it cost him his life. So did Chris, it seems. "
In addition to the restaurant, Cleve had also worked as an independent real estate agent in Playa del Carmen. He didn't have an office, but he set up a table outside La Brioche Bakery in the gated community where he was well known and loved, and from there he went about his business.
A paradise full of venomous snakes
Playa del Carmen is an extremely popular tourist area in eastern Mexico, with a tropical climate, featuring a wide variety of tourist activities due to its geographical location on the Mayan Riviera. It is filled with luxury residences, restaurants, boutiques and entertainment venues.
Playacar is a gated residential and tourist community in Playa del Carmen . The resort with its beautifully manicured lawns and championship golf course is a world away from the grim drug violence that plagues much of Playa del Carmen. CCTV cameras scan the streets and visitors must produce identification to enter in an attempt to deter the criminal element.
Most of the all-inclusive hotels, luxury residences and golf course are located in this area. Many of the more expensive homes selling for over $1 million have stunning ocean views, across the Caribbean to the popular resort of Cozumel.
Others are built around the manicured green of the Hard Rock golf course. But while all of these create a heavenly setting, however, the criminal activity of the drug cartels tends to turn this exotic paradise into hell.
Los Pelones and Los Compich gangs confront the army
Mexican criminologist Vincente Carrera told MailOnline that the resort is the centre of a relentless gang war. "The drug cartels here are fighting for every inch of every place where drugs are sold," Mr Carrera said. "These places are where there are a lot of tourists."
Drug trafficking and extortion are out of control here. Carrera, who writes about crime for the Cancun-based website Noticaribe, said many business owners have been forced to close their restaurants and bars because they are being extorted and forced to pay a lot of money to the cartels for "protection."
He said the situation is so bad that even street vendors selling chicken and trinkets to tourists are forced to pay money to gangs.
The two killers
There are up to six gangs linked to major Mexican drug cartels operating in the Quintana Ro region. The increase in violence in recent months has been attributed to a power struggle between the two dominant gangs, Los Pelones and Los Compich. Their main criminal activities are drugs, extortion, human trafficking and money laundering.
Locals in Playa del Carmen said that killings between the cartels are a daily occurrence and although 650 people were murdered in the state of Quintana Roo last year, most of the killings took place away from tourist areas. But the violence is increasingly spreading there too now.
Last month the manager of a well-known beach club in Playa del Carmen was shot dead by three members of the Los Pelones gang in a brazen attack. The killers arrived on jet skis, murdered the victim and fled, but were eventually captured by police.
In November 2021, a shootout between rival gangs resulted in the murder of two gangsters on a tourist beach in Cancun. Two weeks before that, an American and German tourist were accidentally caught between rival gang gunfire and killed.
Mexico's public security agency says that between January and September 2021, the murder rate increased by 80% from the same period the previous year. In response to the violence, the Mexican government announced that the National Guard will deploy 1,500 soldiers to protect the tourist areas of Quintana Roo.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the recent violence in the region cannot continue , and said the presence of the new battalion will be permanent.
Source: protothema.gr
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