Cartel violence in Cancun continues in 2018 with 98 homicides registered in the first three months of the year.

With the new wave of murders and attacks over the Easter weekend, Cancun closed the first three months with 10 more executions, according to El Diario de Yucatán.

The violence gripping the once peaceful beach resort city also spread to Playa del Carmen to a lesser extent, which also reported three killings over the holiday weekend.

According to local media reports, five people were executed and two others shot on Good Friday in Cancun.

Authorities reported the discovery bodies dumped on the sides of roads at two separate locations in addition to the grisly finding of three bags containing the remains of two murder victims. Later in the afternoon, two brothers were found executed after police responded to reports of shots fired. Two other victims were reported shot at another location but are expected to survive. Good Friday ended with two more victims wounded by gunfire at two separate locations in Benito Juarez.

According to local media reports, a taxi driver was reportedly shot on Saturday morning while outside his home. A 19-year-old bricklayer was killed in his neighborhood. The killings continued on Easter Sunday when a dead male was found in a subdivision in the Villas Otoch neighborhood with multiple gunshot wounds.

Nearby Playa del Carmen registered 10 homicides this year to date with one being reported early Easter morning.

Breitbart Texas previously reported on the ongoing violence attributed by officials to the cartel wars over the disputed lucrative drug markets between CJNG, Los Zetas, Gulf, and independent groups loyal to the Sinaloa Cartel.

The total number of homicides in Cancun during 2017 was 259 while 165 were reported in 2016.

Playa del Carmen registered 26 killings in 2016 and 49 in 2017.

According to prior reporting, a grenade attack against state police occurred in Cancun in January. In March, cartel gunmen stormed a private hospital near the tourist hotel zone and executed a Gulf Cartel plaza boss.

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.)