The beautiful tourist city overrun by criminals as tourists 'become collateral'

The resort attracts over 300,000 sun loving Brits per year. (Image: Getty)

Mexico is renowned for its beautiful beach resorts, which attract millions of visitors a year.

One of the most popular with foreign visitors is Cancun on the Caribbean Sea, located in Quintana Roo state.

The resort offers its very own taste of paradise and attracts over 300,000 sun loving Brits per year.

The resort city is a place to party hard and is often known as the Las Vegas of Mexico, boasting an array of world-renowned nightclubs.

Yet this Mexican paradise is fast acquiring a darker reputation, as cartel violence spills out onto its streets, seemingly sparing no one in the process - including fun loving tourists.

Members of Los Zetas cartel presented to media (Image: Getty)

Back in February the resort hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, as foreign visitors became collateral in an escalating war between four Mexican cartels.

Gang members dismembered rivals with machetes in Cancun, killed a California woman in a shootout near a popular Tulum beach and abducted a New York man before dumping him in the jungle with his eyes taped shut.

The cartels are fighting to take control of an 80-mile stretch of resorts along the Caribbean coast, as they seek to tap into the country’s US$30 billion tourism revenue, according to a private investigator.

Jay Armes III told Fox News Digital: "In the old days, you weren’t allowed to target women or children.

"You weren’t allowed to encroach on another cartel’s territory. And the resorts were off limits. But the rules have changed. All that old guard code is out the window. The resorts are open shop.”

He added: "Who we see as tourists are potential customers or potential victims to the cartels.

“Even if it’s 1 percent or 5 percent(of tourists to the resort areas), that’s millions of customers and a big chunk of business."

For those who have watched Netflix's riveting series "Narcos: Mexico" the names of the warring cartels will be mostly familiar - although there is a new addition to the list of usual suspects.

The Sinaloa, the Gulf and Jalisco New Generation cartels are the main protagonists in this vicious fight for control.

They have been joined by Grupo Regional, a “smaller” cartel created by former Zetas, the brutally violent cartel enforcers.