A local 6-year-old in Cancún was killed after being struck by stay cartel gunfire as the child was preparing to enter her house with her parents this week. An unidentified male who was the intended target died at the scene.

Two cartel gunmen riding on a motorcycle in Cancún opened fire on an unidentified male who was walking along the road in colonia Supermanzana 75, fatally striking him multiple times. While carrying out the execution, several stray rounds stuck the child on the left side of her chest and left arm. “Yazley” was moving toward her residence with her parents who were also struck. Her father, Dinver SH, 39, was hit in the left arm while the mother, Loidy Karina, R.B., 29, was shot on the right side of her pelvis. The child’s father picked up Yazley and ran three blocks to Clínica del Seguro Social in Región 89, where the child died. Both parents received treatment for non-life-threatening wounds, according to local media.

The intended target of the cartel gunmen remains unidentified. No further information has been developed and released pertaining to the identity of the shooters.

Breitbart News reports extensively on the cartel violence in once peaceful Cancún. In 2018, the traditional tourist magnet smashed its previous annual record for murders with at least 546—the previous mark was 227 in 2017. The ongoing violence is attributed to the turf wars between the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, Los Zetas, Gulf, and smaller groups loyal to the Sinaloa Cartel.

In January, Breitbart News reported on seven people killed when cartel gunmen stormed a residence and opened fire. In another attack, three men were killed and two others wounded along one of the main avenues in the city. Also, cartel gunmen stormed a bar and killed five in February.

Cancún Homicide Cases Per Year

2018 — 546

2017 — 227

2016 — 61

2015 — 37

2014 — 21

Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, working out of the Consulate for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.) You can follow him on Twitter. He can be reached at robertrarce@gmail.com.