Local News

[gopbroek]

You reckon the real driver was in the trunk?

If so I hope the crocodiles eat well and he continues to operate the taxi

 

[DandyDon]

I'm struggling with the "passed away after drinking a poisoned cocktail" part.

Yeah, coming back to the scene one night a week makes no sense. I'd attack the property if possible.

 

[mcohen1021]

I'd have thought more to stick it to the Iberostar if the settlement involved free stays.

I'm struggling with the "passed away after drinking a poisoned cocktail" part.

Only conveying what was told, I have no way of validating it.

 

[waterone]

I'm struggling with the "passed away after drinking a poisoned cocktail" part.

Why? .

US warns travelers about tainted alcohol in Mexico | CNN

The United States is warning travelers to Mexico about tainted or counterfeit alcohol following the death of a Wisconsin woman.

www.cnn.com

It happens...

Connor, 20, was pulled from a pool at an Iberostar resort near Playa del Carmen in January, according to the paper.

and at Iberostar apparently..

 

[mstevens]

Why? .

US warns travelers about tainted alcohol in Mexico | CNN

The United States is warning travelers to Mexico about tainted or counterfeit alcohol following the death of a Wisconsin woman.

www.cnn.com

It happens...

and at Iberostar apparently..

The State Department warning is to "avoid excessive alcohol" (which is great advice) and says "There have been allegations that consumption of tainted or substandard alcohol has resulted in illness or blacking out" (which allegations have certainly been made). That's very different from State saying there's any evidence of such poisoning.

There is good reason to suspect poisoning with alcohol itself in nearly all of these reported cases rather than some adulterant. Getting sick and blacking out are core features of excessive alcohol intake. Drowning is a common feature of being very drunk in a pool. In the instance you cite, a 20 y/o from the US (so most likely not accustomed to free public access to alcohol) was found drowning in a pool with a swim-up bar and subsequently died. Her brother "lost all control" and was apparently drowning at the same time but survived.

I'm aware of several studies (mostly in the UK) attempting to quantify adulteration of drinks (the concern primarily being flunitrazepam or "roofies") in people who presented to emergency departments reporting their drinks had been drugged that ended up finding no traces of such adulterants but often staggeringly high blood alcohol levels.

I'm not aware of any laboratory evidence of the presence of adulterants in any of the many people who've reported blacking out after drinking at Mexican resorts. In fact, even though there are news reports of the seizure of "tainted" alcohol from resorts, I find no reports of how it was "tainted". My personal suspicion is that what got seized was untaxed or cheap product mislabeled as expensive product.

The most common toxic congeners of cheap alcohol production are other alcohols such as methanol with very specific and hard-to-miss symptoms. The most common added adulterants are (supposedly) benzodiazepines that are pretty easy to detect. I haven't encountered chloral hydrate (what was said to have been "slipped" into a drink to create a "Micky Finn") since the late '80's. All of these things are pretty easy to detect at autopsy.

I see a lot of people who seek to convince me (or the judge) that there "must have been something" in the "one drink" they had that accounts for their behavior. Some of their blood alcohol levels exceed what I was taught was incompatible with life, and most of the time incompatible with speaking or standing. There WAS something in their drink: ethanol, but if it was just one drink it was a truly massive one.

If you're aware of any direct reporting (not one news outlet reporting what another news outlet reported some newspaper said) of evidence of how resort booze in Mexico was "tainted", or anything that points to good evidence of some cause of the reported symptoms that wouldn't be attributable to alcohol (I'm not going to accept the person's insistence they hardly drank any), then I'd be very interested in seeing that.

One gets the strong impression that Iberostar has decided that paying out is, in the long run, cheaper than trying to fight these claims. How would it not be cheaper just to serve regular cheap booze? I suspect that's exactly what they do.

 

[ChuckP]

I have never heard of tainted drinks here. Anything is possible anywhere though.

During Covid, the Yucatan was either dry or ran out of booze - I think they were dry. There were many reports of people dying from bad booze - the reports of 1 here and there but there was a party that 4 or more died at..... Alcholism is real, go buy a coca cola at the marina super mini at 7am and see what's served for breakfast..

 

[ibj40]

Cozumel recognized as Best Cruise Destination in Mexico - Riviera Maya News

Cozumel, Q.R. -- The island of Cozumel has been awarded Best Cruise Destination in Mexico by Reader’s Choice.

www.riviera-maya-news.com

 

[mcohen1021]

Like I said, no way to prove anything, just telling you the story I heard on the plane.

Still sad because you could tell the guy was still hurting

 

[El Graduado]

In order to combat organized crime in Cozumel, Cozumel's chapter of CANIRAC (the national restaurant association) has just signed an agreement with Quintana Roo State Attorney General’s office to join a new state-run program, similar to the US’s Air Marshal program. But this program is for restaurants, not airplanes. Inscribed Cozumel restaurants will have an assigned secret undercover agent to sit and keep watch. These plainclothes undercover agents are drawn from the Grupo de Coordinación para la Construcción de Paz y Seguridad en Quintana Roo (Coordination Group for the Construction of Peace and Security in Quintana Roo). This group reports directly to the new governor of Quintana Roo, Mara Lezama.

 

[rmssetc]

In order to combat organized crime in Cozumel, Cozumel's chapter of CANIRAC (the national restaurant association) has just signed an agreement with Quintana Roo State Attorney General’s office to join a new state-run program, similar to the US’s Air Marshal program. But this program is for restaurants, not airplanes. Inscribed Cozumel restaurants will have an assigned secret undercover agent to sit and keep watch. These plainclothes undercover agents are drawn from the Grupo de Coordinación para la Construcción de Paz y Seguridad en Quintana Roo (Coordination Group for the Construction of Peace and Security in Quintana Roo). This group reports directly to the new governor of Quintana Roo, Mara Lezama.

Is that another way of saying that cops eat for free?