Mexican Cops Bust Third Man In Slaying Of Canadian Gangsters

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Officials allege the murders were over a reputed multimillion-dollar debt tied to guns and drug trafficking.

An image released of a gunman in the slaying of two Canadians at Hotel Xcaret in Mexico on Jan. 21, 2022.

A third man has been arrested in the Jan. 21 rubout of two Canadian gangsters at a resort in Mexico’s Riviera Maya, officials said.

Cops say that the third man is believed to have been an accomplice to the triggerman in the brazen daytime hit that killed Robert Dinh and Thomas Cherukara and injured a female friend.

A gunman dressed in a powder-blue or grey tracksuit shot the two men at Hotel Xcaret. The hitman had been walking with the doomed pair just minutes earlier.

Then, suddenly, he began firing, squeezing off at least five rounds.

Robert Dinh (Conh Dinh), centre, and Thomas Cherukara, right, along with Jessica Sahadee Ceara Yari were all shot Jan. 21, 2022 in Mexico. Only Yari survived.

Dinh had been wanted by the RCMP for money laundering and allegedly had deep ties with Vietnamese crime syndicates. He had reportedly fled to Vietnam in 2013, one step ahead of the cops.

Media reports said the criminal network he was involved with smuggled cocaine into the U.S. and Canada.

Cherukara also had a couple of drug busts under his belt, while some robberies, weapons, and property crimes rounded out his criminal CV, according to Canadian media reports.

An ambulance remains outside the Playamed hospital, where a wounded person was transported after a shooting at Hotel Xcaret, Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. Photo by Juan Manuel Valdivia /AFP via Getty Images

Both men allegedly had criminal connections to the West Coast and the Toronto area. Cherukara is from Mississauga.

At the time, Mexican officials characterized the hit as a beef between hotel guests and not connected to an international crime drama.

The third suspect was arrested in Mexico City on Sunday and was named only as Óscar Iván N. A warrant had been issued for his arrest hours after the bloodshed, Riviera Maya News reports.

Two other alleged hired killers are already in custody.

“They were located in Mexico City for which field personnel implemented an operation … one of the people was identified as Oscar Iván “N” who had an arrest warrant for murder and attempted murder,” the Attorney General’s Office of Quintana Roo said.

Officials allege they had been hired to kill the two Canadians because of a reputed multimillion-dollar debt tied to guns and drug trafficking.

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