Boy killed in Cancun shootout between rival drug dealers
A shootout between rival drug dealers on a Cancun beach turned deadly when a 12-year-old boy was hit by multiple stray bullets as he sat in a lounge chair, according to Mexican officials.
The incident happened Sunday in the municipality of Benito Juárez.
According to prosecutors, the boy, who was not identified, was a local resident and does not appear to have been targeted by the gunmen.
"Attackers arrived by sea, aboard a jet ski shooting at some people presumably in dispute for drug sales," prosecutors said in a statement.
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The young boy, whose family was present during the shootout, was taken to a local hospital where he later died.
The Attorney General's office in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo is leading the investigation.
This comes as Mexico's president is calling on the cartels for peace following the recent arrests of two high-profile drug lords.
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, a historic leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, and Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of notorious drug kingpin "El Chapo," were arrested by U.S. authorities in Texas, the U.S. Justice Department confirmed Thursday.
Zambada and Guzmán López oversaw the trafficking of "tens of thousands of pounds of drugs into the United States, along with related violence," FBI Director Christopher Wray said, adding that now they will "face justice in the United States."
This story was reported on from Los Angeles.