“U.S. citizens should exercise increased caution in the downtown areas of popular spring break locations including Cancun, Playa Del Carmen, and Tulum, especially after dark,” according to the alert.
The Sate Department also noted that U.S. citizens “have become seriously ill or died in Mexico after using synthetic drugs or adulterated prescription pills.”
That warning followed reports that some pharmacies in Mexico freely offer sedatives and other drugs that can only be sold with prescriptions in the United States. The Mexican pills are often counterfeit and contain the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.
The alert also noted that “unregulated alcohol may be contaminated, and U.S. citizens have reported losing consciousness or becoming injured after consuming alcohol that was possibly tainted.”
There have been a series of brazen acts of violence along the Caribbean coast, the crown jewel of Mexico’s tourism industry.
In 2022, two Canadians were killed in Playa del Carmen, apparently because of debts between international drug and weapons trafficking gangs.
In 2021, farther south in the laid-back destination of Tulum, two tourists — one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German — were caught in the apparent crossfire of rival drug dealers and killed.
*This story has not been edited by The Infallible staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.
