• 6 strangled, 1 decapitated in Mexican resort city of Cancun

    Victor Ruiz Garcia / Reuters

    Seven suspects in the killing of seven people in Cancun are presented to the media during a news conference on Sunday.

    By Reuters

    CANCUN, Mexico -- Six people were strangled to death and one decapitated in the southern Mexican tourist resort of Cancun on Sunday, the state's deputy attorney general said, in the latest mass killing to strike the city in the last few weeks.

    Police found the bodies of the five men and two women in a shack in the outskirts of Cancun, a major tourist destination on Mexico's Caribbean coast, that has largely escaped the drug-related violence that has racked Acapulco, a faded tourist destination on the Pacific coast.

    "It looks like the victims were independent drug dealers without any links to any specific cartel," said Juan Ignacio Hernandez, deputy attorney general of Quintana Roo state.

    Last month six people died and five were injured after two men opened fire in a bar on the outskirts of Cancun.

    In a separate incident, police on Sunday found the body of another man in Cancun who had been gagged, bound and wrapped in sheets.

    Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has promised to put an end to the violence that exploded after his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, launched a military-led attack on the warring cartels.

    More than 70,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since 2007. 

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Gunmen kill 6 at bar in Mexico resort town of Cancun; 5 wounded

    By Isela Serrano, Elinor Comlay and Mohammad Zargham, Reuters

    MEXICO CITY -- Two men armed with a machine gun and a handgun opened fire in a bar on the outskirts of the Mexican tourist resort of Cancun on Thursday, killing six people and wounding five, the office of the state's attorney general said.

    Cancun, a major tourist destination on Mexico's Caribbean coast, has largely escaped the drug-related violence that has racked Acapulco, a faded tourist hot spot on the Pacific coast.

    Last month, six Spanish women were raped by hooded gunmen who forced their way into the Acapulco beach house the women had rented.

    Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has vowed to reduce the violence that soared after his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, launched an assault on drug cartels.

    More than 70,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since 2007.

    Related:

    6 arrested in Acapulco tourists' rape

    PhotoBlog: Church bricks up windows, installs warning system amid Mexico violence

    Slideshow: Narco culture permeates Mexico, leaks across border

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Fugitive on US most-wanted list is captured in Mexico

    U.S. Marshals / AP

    This photo provided by the U.S. Marshals Service shows Vincent Legrend Walters. The U.S. Marshals Service says Vincent Legrend Walters, one of its 15 most-wanted fugitives, has been caught in the Mexican resort city of Cancun.

    By NBC News and news services

    MEXICO CITY -- The U.S. Marshals Service announced the capture of Vincent Legrend Walters, one of the law enforcement agency's 15 most wanted fugitives, in the resort city of Cancun.


    Walters, 45, was wanted on kidnapping, murder and drug charges stemming from a 1988 San Diego, Calif., case.

    The agency said Walters was apprehended Friday morning, then transported to Mexico City where he will await extradition to the United States.

    Walters had been working at the Cancun International Airport under the assumed name Oscar Rivera, according to a statement released by the agency.

    Walters is accused in the kidnapping and murder of Christina Reyes in September 1988, U.S. Marshals said in a statement obtained by NBC News. He was also indicted by a federal grand jury in 1989 on conspiracy to manufacture, possess and distribute crystal methamphetamine, carrying firearms during a drug trafficking crime and possession of unregistered firearms and explosives.

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    Walters was snared by an undercover Drug Enforcement Agency operation in 1988 after allegedly purchasing $20,000 worth of chemicals to make methamphetamine and negotiating an additional $200,000 deal with the undercover agents, Marshals said.

    They described events this way:

    When one of his associates became paranoid holding onto the finished methamphetamine, Walters handed it off to a local drug dealer, who in turn gave it to his friend Jay Bareno. Wanting their drugs back, Walters tracked down the local dealer, who no longer had the drugs, and kidnapped him, along with his friend and his friend's girlfriend to trade them to Bareno for the drugs.

    Bareno agreed to exchange the drugs for the hostages. After returning the drugs, two of the hostages were released, but Christina Reyes died when she was gagged with a chemically saturated rag that killed her almost instantaneously.

    Martin Walters, Vincent's brother, was caught soon after the crime and has since been convicted of Reyes' kidnapping and murder, they said. He is serving 25 years to life in prison.

    "Vincent Walters is accused of committing a number of crimes that landed him on our most wanted fugitive list," said David Harlow, Assistant Director of the U.S. Marshals Investigative Operations Division. "Thanks to the hard work of our Deputy U.S. Marshals, local law enforcement and Mexican law enforcement partners, we were able to bring Walters in to face the consequences for his laundry list of accused crimes."

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