Gunmen on jet skis open fire at rival drug dealer at a beach in Cancun, killing a 12-year-old boy

MEXICO CITY — Gunmen riding jet skis opened fire at a rival drug dealer on a beach in the resort town of Cancun, killing a 12-year-old boy before fleeing, Mexican authorities said.

Prosecutors said in a statement late Sunday that the boy suffered gunshot wounds and was taken to a hospital where he later died.

The boy was a local resident who apparently was lying on a lounge chair on the beach with his family when he was shot.

Prosecutors said the intended targets of the gunmen were rivals engaged in a dispute over drug sales. The boy was apparently hit by stray bullets.

Territorial disputes between drug dealers have cost the lives of several tourists in the resorts along Mexico’s Caribbean coast in recent years.

In 2022, two Canadians were killed in Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun, apparently because of debts between international drug and weapons trafficking gangs.

In 2021, further south in Tulum, two tourists — one a California travel blogger born in India and a German national — were killed when they apparently were caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival drug dealers.