Two Canadians, one of them wanted by Interpol, have been found dead by knife wounds in the tourist resort of Playa del Carmen, on the Caribbean coast of Mexico, the state prosecutor’s office reported on Tuesday.
Prosecutors in the state of Quintana Roo, also home to resorts such as Cancun and Tulum, said the man and woman were found dead Monday in a hotel or condominium in the resort, and a third person was injured. .
There was no immediate information about their names or hometowns. But prosecutors confirmed that the male victim was on an Interpol search list on charges of fraud.
“Global Affairs Canada is aware of the deaths of two Canadian citizens in Mexico,” the department said in a statement.
“Consular officials are willing to provide consular assistance to families and are in contact with local authorities to gather additional information,” the statement said. “Due to privacy considerations, no additional information can be provided.”
Playa del Carmen has been hit by several cases of violence with foreigners, most recently in January, when two Canadians were killed at a local resort, apparently due to debts between international drug gangs and gunmen.
In March, police in Playa del Carmen found the bodies of four men dumped near an urbanization. The fact that the bodies lay together among the bushes next to an access road suggested a gang-style massacre.
There have been a number of blatant acts of violence elsewhere on the coast of Mexico’s Riviera Maya, the jewel in the crown of the country’s tourism industry.
In November, a shooting on the beach in Puerto Morelos, north of Playa del Carmen, left two suspected drug traffickers dead.
Authorities said about 15 gunmen were on one side apparently disputing control of drug sales there.
In late October, further south, in the quiet destination of Tulum, two tourists, one an Indian-born travel blogger from California and the other a German, were caught in the apparent crossfire of rival drug dealers and murders.