Gentle waves lap at the shore of the beach in Tulum. A bare-chested man brings his legs together to complete a yoga handstand. A woman walks toward the sea, pointing her cell phone camera at the endless blue horizon.
It’s a picturesque and peaceful scene.
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Another bare-chested man appears, running along the beach, seemingly taking a very brisk jog. But, in fact, a chase is underway, with two heavily-armed Mexican marines in hot pursuit of the apparently felonious runner, who warily looks back over his left shoulder.
This is the intriguing scene that plays out in a video posted to Instagram last week by Jayson Barniske, a yoga teacher who was recording his yoga session and unintentionally captured the coastal chase.
“Meanwhile in Tulum,” Barniske, a United States native who lives and teaches yoga in the town, captioned his post.
According to reports, the man pursued by the marines is an alleged drug dealer, who had apparently been caught selling drugs on the beach. It was unclear whether he was taken into custody.
On Instagram, Barniske responded to an inquiry as to what happened after the events shown in his video.
“I hope he got away. I didn’t know what happened until I saw the video. I only heard the guns clinking when I was in the handstand,” he wrote.
“When I was practicing handstands the marines started chasing someone behind me. But I held my line,” Barniske wrote in response to another inquiry.
Among the comments other Instagram users added to his post were: “High season promo video”; “I saw this guy trying to sell ‘cocaina‘ to everyone”; “Great video. Yep only in Tulum!! Well, Playa [del Carmen] also”; and “México surreal.”
Tulum, located about 130 kilometers south of Cancún, is a particularly popular destination for young foreigners and Mexicans, and has become known as a party mecca where a range of illicit substances are readily available.
Parties continued through the pandemic when restrictions were in place in many other places around the world, which only made Tulum an even more appealing destination for many travelers.
As tourism has increased in recent years, so too has violent crime, and foreign tourists have been among the victims of homicides.
Foreigners have also fallen foul of the law in Tulum, including a Canadian man who was arrested last year in connection with the shooting death of a police officer.
Mexico News Daily
