Killing of Two Canadians at Tourist Resort was a Planned Hit Over a Drug Debt

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

The murder of two Canadian tourists at the Xcaret hotel in Quintana Roo, as reported by Borderland Beat, was planned weeks in advance due to drug debt in an international plot, and the alleged criminals were monitored daily while on vacation.

Óscar Montes de Oca, the prosecutor of Quintana Roo, explained that Christian R was entrusted to lead the crime operations, since the beginning of 2022. He was a member of an organized crime cell for these tasks and was hired in Mexico City. He recruited two subjects who would participate in the execution, and the three traveled from the country's capital to Quintana Roo on January 16. The gunmen knew of the arrival and location of their target.

They even planned the murder in Playa del Carmen, where Robert James Dinh, Thomas Cherukara, Ceara Jessica Sahadee Yari, and seven other people had planned their visit from January 15 to 22 in the Riviera Maya. Although the end of the journey would be fatal.

The day after their arrival, the alleged criminals began monitoring the tourist complex, because they had temporary access through a pass. During their visit, they received information in real-time by telephone about the activities of the alleged drug operators, who would be linked to a Vietnamese gang that traffics ecstasy, cocaine, and marijuana in Canada as well as in the United States.

Christian "R" and Nhu "T" have been arrested for planning the deaths of and monitoring the two murdered Canadians at an Xcaret resort.

It is suspected that the person who provided this information within the group of tourists would have been Nhu "T", who traveled from Canada with the vacationers. Both she and Christian R were the first to fall into the hands of the authorities and are already charged with qualified murder and attempted murder, although their connection to the process will be decided on January 29.

The man and woman worked together, but the two hitmen initially hired refused to finish their job and left Quintana Roo. One of the obstacles identified was the constant presence of surveillance at the Xcaret hotel, such as police outside, according to investigations by the state prosecutor's office.

Cristian R notified his employer of the complexity and on January 21 he received another order: he had to pick up a new hitman at the state airport and drive him to the target.

 

El Sureño carried out the murders the same day he arrived in Quintana Roo.

Quintana Roo authorities are searching for Óscar Olmedo Alanís, "El Sureño," identified as the hitman who traveled from Mexico City to execute Robert James Dinh, a Canadian tourist who was murdered at the Xcaret hotel along with his companion and where another woman was injured in the same attack.

According to reports from Telediario, El Sureño was arrested in the country's capital in 2010 for qualified robbery and was imprisoned in the Oriente Men's Preventive Prison, but was released. However, three years later he was arrested in La Paz, Baja California, for his responsibility in extortion crimes and finally got out of jail in 2018.

Reports provided by the Mexico City Attorney General's Office revealed the long history of crimes attributed to the alleged hitman Alanís Olmedo.

This subject lived in Iztapalapa, from where he left for Quintana Roo to commit executions in the tourist complex of the municipality of Solidaridad on January 21. The target was Robert James Dinh, but Thomas Cherukara was also killed and Ceara Jessica Sahadee Yari, who was at the scene, was injured.

Although the ministerial authorities have not specified it, James Dinh would be linked to the Vietnamese narco that operates in Canada and the United States, known as Cong Dinh. The latter is a target of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and in 2019 a $50,000 reward was offered for him.

The organization's ties involved the laundering of millions in profits, after shipping significant quantities of ecstasy and marijuana to the southern United States, as well as cocaine to northern Canada. In addition, its scope was found in Mexico, in addition to California, Australia, Vietnam, and on the streets of Canadian territory.

El Sureño was not originally involved in the murder. He traveled as an emergency, but a few hours after his departure from the Iztapalapa mayor's office, he committed the crime. Presumably, he would be linked to a criminal cell that operates in the country's capital, but which of them has not been specified.

Nhu T. would have provided information for the monitoring of the objectives since she was in charge of taking care of minors who also planned their visit together with the alleged foreign criminals. The tourists decided to visit the Riviera Maya and booked at the Xcaret hotel from January 15 to 22. Although one day before the return the murders occurred.

On January 21, Cristian R went to the Quintana Roo international airport for Sureño. That same day, both entered the hotel with bracelets that were useful to them to stay in the facilities. The new killer was given full details of Robert James Dinh. At 2:45 p.m., it was agreed to wait for the criminal at a certain point onboard a vehicle, so that he could escape. The two communicated on the phone constantly.

But 40 minutes before the events occurred, the assailant met Nhu “T . The two talked for three minutes, according to videos obtained from the security circuit of the lodging center. El Sureño was sitting on a cot, under an umbrella. The woman was carrying a stroller and there she would have given information about the tourists.

A camera captured the shooting of five bullets. The gunman escaped into the adjoining jungle brush to an awaiting car.

El Sureño arrived at the white car where Cristian R was waiting, took off his gray sweatshirt, and threw it on the floor. Immediately he got into the trunk and the two began to flee. Since then nothing has been known about his whereabouts, but there are sufficient elements about his probable identity.

The investigations allowed to find the driver of the vehicle on January 22, since he had also rented an apartment in the municipality of Benito Juárez. The woman who would have served as an accomplice was still insured and the link to the process of the two arrested will be decided this Saturday, January 29.

Thomas Cherukara died on his way to the hospital and Robert James Dinh died a few minutes later while receiving medical care at the hospital. The woman was also injured and since that date remains hospitalized but is not yet available to the authorities to interview her.

The other Canadians in the group, including three minors, remain in the country. While the bodies of foreigners are in the Forensic Medical Service in the process of being repatriated. The Canadian police reported to the Quintana Roo authorities that those executed were linked to drug trafficking, robberies, weapons, crimes against property, and the use of false identities.

The Quintana Roo Prosecutor's Office warns that the murder was planned elsewhere, but ended at the Xcaret hotel, which is why coordination is maintained with Canada and the Attorney General's Office of the Republic for organized crime crimes.

Given the latest violent events that occurred in the Riviera Maya, the governor of Quintana Roo, Carlos Joaquín González, confirmed that in two weeks agents of the Canadian Mounted Police, of the DEA, and the FBI of the United States. Joaquín González clarified that foreign institutions will mainly deal with issues related to the review and exchange of information, in order to improve security levels and avoid situations such as those that have occurred in recent weeks.

“In two weeks, we will be having the visit of international institutions from the United States and Canada that will come to work with us in matters of review and exchange of information and improvement to avoid situations like the one that occurred in Xcaret,” assured the governor during an interview for Radio Formula.

He also assured that the latest violent events "far exceed" the intelligence actions by the Mexican authorities, mainly due to the fact that they are groups that "do not operate in the entity" and that are totally unrelated to the state of Quintana Roo.

The United States issued a travel warning for Cancun, Quintana Roo after this shooting as well as several other killings at local tourist resorts in the past few months, as reported by Borderland Beat.

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Some graphics by HEARST.