Alleged Cancún Crime Boss Shot Outside Mérida Home

A man identified by Quintana Roo authorities as a drug-trade figure in Cancún was shot and wounded Friday morning outside a home in Montes de Amé, a residential subdivision in north Mérida.

The attack happened around 11 a.m. on Calle 32 between 79 and 81. The man had stepped out of his house to get into his vehicle when two people on a motorcycle pulled up and opened fire, Diario de Yucatán reported. Neighbors reported hearing several shots.

Family members rushed him to a private clinic near the Mérida-Progreso highway. Yucatán’s Public Security Secretariat, known as the SSP, said its officers came across a private vehicle carrying a gunshot victim, gave first aid, and had paramedics take him to a hospital. The SSP said the man was in stable condition and had been able to give investigators information about the attack.

Local media identified him as José Marcelino “N,” known as “El Marce.” Mexican authorities and news outlets routinely withhold the surnames of people involved in criminal cases.

Diario de Yucatán described him as an alleged jefe de plaza — a boss who controls drug sales in a given territory — in Cancún who had been operating out of Mérida. Other regional outlets reported he had come to Mérida to keep a low profile.

He is not unknown to police. In June 2025, Quintana Roo’s state prosecutor’s office announced his arrest on Avenida 135 in Cancún’s Supermanzana 336. Prosecutors said agents stopped the pickup truck he was riding in and found small bags of what appeared to be marijuana and crystal meth. He was held on suspicion of street-level drug dealing.

Quintana Roo authorities had also named him a priority target in the state’s crime atlas. Several regional outlets, citing prosecutors there, reported he faced an arrest warrant in the killing of four men. One outlet reported he had also been linked to threatening banners hung around Cancún during a fight over local drug sales. Friday’s reports did not explain how he came to be free in Mérida or where those cases stand.

After the shooting, the SSP flooded north Mérida with officers and set up checkpoints around the city. Shortly afterward, police found the motorcycle abandoned near the scene. It was a red Italika FT125 with no license plate.

Suspect sought

The attackers may have been a man and a woman, according to Diario de Yucatán. After ditching the motorcycle, they reportedly climbed into a gray Chevrolet Beat sedan to get away. Police were still looking for the car Friday afternoon.

SSP investigators are working with the Yucatán State Attorney General’s Office on the case, which is being treated as attempted homicide. No arrests had been announced as of Friday afternoon. Authorities have not said whether the attack is tied to the man’s record in Quintana Roo or to a dispute between criminal groups.

Shootings like this one are rare in Mérida. Yucatán has for years recorded the fewest homicides of any Mexican state. Federal figures show 17 homicides statewide from January through August, the lowest total in the country, and fewer than 10 killings in Mérida over the past 12 months in a city of roughly 1 million people.

The U.S. State Department rates Yucatán at Level 1, “Exercise normal precautions,” among Mexico’s safest states for travel. Neighboring Quintana Roo, home to Cancún and Tulum, sits at Level 2 because of clashes between rival criminal groups.