Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
A prosecutor in Mexico said Tuesday the killing of two Canadians at a Caribbean coast resort last week was motivated by debts between international gangs apparently dedicated to drug and weapons trafficking.
On Friday, prosecutors said both dead men had criminal records in Canada, and one was a known felon with a long record related to robbery, drug and weapons offenses. A third Canadian, a woman, was wounded and is being treated at a local hospital, but is not yet able to speak with investigators.
"The investigations indicate that this attack was motivated by debts that arose from transnational illegal activities that the victims participated in," said Oscar Montes, the chief prosecutor of the Quintana Roo state. "The information (is) that they were involved in weapons and drug trafficking, among other crimes."
Montes said the attack had been planned for almost a month by a cartel or gang that had not previously been known to operate in the area. But in keeping with standard procedure, he declined to name the gang.
The attack took place Friday at the Hotel Xcaret resort is south of Playa del Carmen. The attackers apparently had guest wrist bands to enter the resort.
Montes said a first group of assassins hired to kill the Canadians earlier in January abandoned the job because there was too much security. A second assassin flew in to the resort and carry out the killing, he said.
Authorities said the two suspects arrested in the case so far include a professional kidnapper from Mexico City who coordinated the plot.
Police also arrested a female, identified only by her last name, Nu, who was apparently part of the group of 10 Canadians who were vacationing at the resort. Montes said Nu both "cared for the children" of the victims and allegedly met with the killers and may have been providing them information on their activities.
The hired killer who actually fired the shots is being sought.
Last week's killings are just part of a series of brazen acts of violence along Mexico's resort-studded Mayan Riviera coast, the crown jewel of the country's tourism industry. Several rival drug gangs are fighting for control of the area's lucrative drug market.
On Tuesday, prosecutors reported a man had been shot to death at a well-known beach club restaurant in Playa del Carmen. They did not identify the dead man, but the local business chamber identified him as the manager of the business.
In November, a shootout on the beach of Puerto Morelos left two suspected drug dealers dead. Authorities said there were some 15 gunmen from a gang that apparently disputed control of drug sales there.
In late October, farther south in the laidback destination of Tulum, two tourists -- one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German -- were caught in the apparent crossfire of rival drug dealers and killed.
Following those events, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sent nearly 1,500 members of the National Guard to reinforce security in the area.
If Canadian gangs were involved in Quintana Roo, it would not be shocking. The Caribbean coast state, because of its huge flow of foreigners, has seen a number of crime rings with international connections.
A Romanian gang has long operated in the state, using ATM machines to clone credit cards or make illegal withdrawals. And this week authorities arrested two Ukrainians for their alleged involvement in a fuel theft ring. Immigrant traffickers have long used Cancun as base for smuggling Cuban migrants.
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.