Two Canadian men killed at Mexican beach resort
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico – Gunmen killed two Canadian men at the apartment building they occupied in the Mexican tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta, authorities said Monday.
Jalisco state prosecutor Guillermo Diaz said Gordon Douglas Kendall and Jeffrey Ronald Ivans were killed Sunday by several gunmen who came to their apartment building.
Diaz said witnesses told police a lone gunman approached the men outside the building and shot Kendall, then chased Ivans to the pool area and shot him. Witnesses also said two other gunmen then arrived and repeatedly shot the dead or dying Canadians.
Diaz said that Ivans was carrying a handgun. It is unusual for people in Mexico, particularly foreigners, to carry handguns, and it was not clear if Ivans had a permit.
Diaz said police have reports that the men had been involved in real estate developments in another nearby resort area, Bahia de Banderas.
Investigators have not determined a motive for the killing and no arrests have been made.
In neighboring Michoacan state, police arrested three federal agents who were passing information to organized crime.
The Public Safety Department said in a statement the three agents, ages 33, 37 and 38, were assigned to the port city of Lazaro Cardenas as part of President Felipe Calderon’s crackdown on organized crime.
One of the officers was carrying 200,000 pesos ($15,000 dollars) and investigators believe it was money received for informing on police operations, it said.
Drug traffickers have responded fiercely, unleashing unprecedented violence with shootouts and gruesome decapitations. More than 13,500 people have been killed by drug violence since December 2006.