14 DAY TRIAL // On Thursday, March 14, police in Cancún, in the Quintana Roo Mexican state, have been called at the scene after an armed mob opened fire during a taxi drivers' union unofficial meeting.
A group of men entered the La Sirenita bar and shot off several members of the union. Mexican news agency Notinfomex mentions that the attack took place in the city's región 233, at the intersection of 20 de Noviembre street and Calle Rancho Viejo.
According to Mexico Gulf Reporter, six people have been killed on the spot and about six more have been injured in the deadly attack. A seventh person has died on the way to the hospital.
Between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m., the attackers stepped out of two vehicles and opened fire on clients in the establishment.
The assailants used machine guns and a .9 mm pistol to gun down the taxi drivers. Locals recall the gunmen using “cuernos de chivo,” Spanish for “goat horns” in the attack, which is a slang term used to describe a machine gun, particularly an AK-47.
The Diario de Yucatan, also writing in Spanish, quotes assistant Quintana Roo district attorney Juan Ignacio Hernández Mora as he notes that Achach Francisco, Conflicts Secretary for the “Andrés Quintana Ro” union has been fatally shot.
“It was a settling of scores, the taxi drivers are not involved in anything good.
“We are concerned about bar owner Sebastian Dzul Herrera, who has been wounded and threatened about being finished off,” a senior official in the Benito Juarez Department of Public Safety and City Transit tells El Diario.
Witnesses at the scene stated that the armed group were looking for one of the drivers in the union, who allegedly had ties to organized crime.
Several taxi cab drivers in Cancun work as lookouts for local drug cartels, tipping them off on police activities and transporting drugs.