Tourists to all-inclusive resorts in Mexico suspect they were given tainted alcoholRaquel Rutledge, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 6:00 a.m. CT July 20, 2017
The scene at the swim-up bar at the Mexican resort where Abbey Conner was pulled listless from the pool in January was full of young tourists last month when an attorney hired by Conner’s family showed up.
It wasn’t surprising. It was a typical scene at an all-inclusive five-star resort where foreigners from both sides of the equator flock to escape their cold winters.
But as he watched, the attorney noticed something disturbing.
“They serve alcoholic drinks with alcohol of bad quality and in great amounts, mixing different types of drinks,” he wrote in his native Spanish.
That single paragraph, buried near the end of a four-page report summarizing how 20-year-old Conner drowned within a couple hours of arriving at the Iberostar Hotel & Resorts' Paraiso del Mar, offers a possible lead in the investigation into her death.
And it could shed light on the circumstances surrounding numerous reports from others who have told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel they experienced sickness, blackouts and injuries after drinking at Iberostar and other resorts around Cancun and Playa del Carmen in recent months.
They told the Journal Sentinel they believe they were drugged or the alcohol may have been tainted. They questioned how they could fall into a stupor so quickly. And whether they had been targeted.
Was it robbery? In one case, two teenage brothers from Minnesota on vacation with their parents woke up covered in mud, with no shirts or shoes and their wallets and cellphones missing. They had gotten separated during the night. One had a severe rash all over his legs. Neither could remember what happened.
Sexual assault? One Wisconsin woman interviewed by the Journal Sentinel said she was assaulted while both she and her husband were unconscious — something supported by an exam done by her OB-GYN when she returned to Neenah. Her husband woke up with a broken hand — a “boxer’s break” that his doctor said likely resulted from hitting someone — but also no memory of what had happened.
Extortion? In at least three cases, travelers reported that local hospitals, part of the Hospiten chain, appeared to be gouging them, demanding large sums of cash. One man was told to take a cab to an ATM. The vacationers suspected Iberostar might be in cahoots with the medical company. The resort contracts with Hospiten and refers sick and injured guests to Hospiten's facilities. Abbey Conner's family paid about $17,000 to a small medical clinic south of Playa del Carmen and within several hours paid tens of thousands more to a hospital in Cancun, north of the resort, where Abbey and her brother were transferred.
Others can find no motive for their suspected drugging.
Could it be what the attorney for the Conner family alluded to in his report: All-inclusive resorts using cheap, bootleg booze to cut costs?
A 2015 report from Mexico’s Tax Administration Service found that 43% of all the alcohol consumed in the nationis illegal, produced under unregulated circumstances resulting in potentially dangerous concoctions.
The national health authority in Mexico has seized more than 1.4 million gallons of adulterated alcohol since 2010 — not just from small local establishments, but from hotels and other entertainment areas, according toa 2017 report by the country's Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks.
The bootleg liquor could be infused with grain alcohol or dangerous concentrations of methanol, cheaper alternatives to producing ethanol, government reports warn.
And the mixtures are capable of making people extremely sick.
The blackouts have happened to men and women, young and old, to singles and to couples, according to interviews with nearly a dozen travelers and family members whose loved ones died or were injured at the resorts, as well as hospital records, ambulance receipts, hotel correspondence and other documents.
They have happened at Iberostar’s property in Cancun and at the company's cluster of resorts 30 miles to the south in Playa del Carmen. And they've happened to guests at other all-inclusive resorts in the region, such as Secrets and the Grand Oasis.
Often the vacationers report that they drank tequila, but in other cases it was rum, beer or another alcohol.
Some said they had only a drink or two before losing consciousness and waking up hours later — with no recollection of how they got back to their rooms or to the hospital, or how they were injured.
Those interviewed said the feeling of being drugged is far different than that of being drunk. They felt certain that whatever happened to them was caused by more than drinking too heavily.
Terrifying is a word many used to describe it.
Nearly all reported that it happened within the first two days of their stay, with several opting to leave the resorts and head home before their planned departure — without receiving refunds.
A spokeswoman for Spain-based Iberostar told the Journal Sentinel the company takes the health and safety of its guests seriously. A statement from Iberostar said the company's Mexican resorts book about 500,000 guests a year and that the company adheres to strict regulatory standards.
"We work with a host of providers not unique to IBEROSTAR who service other hotel chains and renowned brands," the statement says. "Similarly, we only purchase sealed bottles that satisfy all standards required by the designated regulatory authorities."
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It is impossible to know the scope of the problem, since many of the incidents go uninvestigated. In several cases, travelers told the Journal Sentinel that staffers at Iberostar resorts would not call the police and said the guests should take a cab to the police department if they wanted to file a report.
The U.S. Department of State tallies deaths of U.S. citizens in foreign countries, but doesn’t always have many details. The agency doesn’t track how often people are drugged or otherwise injured.
A search of the agency's data shows nearly 300 U.S. citizens have drowned in Mexico in the last decade, 39 last year alone. The database doesn't provide surrounding circumstances.
Department officials would not comment on Conner’s death other than to say they “are aware of this case,” and to extend condolences to the family.
Abbey Conner was on a family vacation with her mother, stepfather and brother in January and was found face down in the pool unconscious shortly after they arrived. She was brain dead, and a few days later was flown to Florida, where she was taken off life support.
Her older brother, Austin, nearly drowned in the pool next to her. He suffered an injury to his forehead and a severe concussion. He doesn’t remember what happened.
The last thing he recalls is that he and his sister had four or five shots of tequila, then another shot with a group of people. When he regained consciousness, he was in an ambulance. Abbey was on life support.
Abbey was later found to have a broken collar bone. It’s unclear what caused it. Experts say it’s possible it was cracked during CPR when hotel staff and a contracted doctor on site tried to resuscitate her, though such a fracture would be uncommon.
Abbey's mother and stepfather, Ginny and John McGowan of Pewaukee, and her father, Bill Conner, who lives just south of Madison, have gotten few answers about what happened and little to no cooperation from the resort, police in Mexico or authorities in the U.S.
In Mexico, they took a cab to the police station, but were discouraged from filing a report.
They said the Iberostar resort has been nothing but an obstructionist. The resort has refused to allow the bartender and other employees or guests to be interviewed.
And the U.S. State Department suggested there was nothing it could do to help.
The State Department’s latest notice on travel to Mexico, posted in December 2016, makes no mention of any concern for vacationers at all-inclusive resorts.Indeed, it suggests they are relatively safe.
“Resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico generally do not see the level of drug-related violence and crime that are reported in the border region or in areas along major trafficking routes,” the notice says.
Trusted websites such as TripAdvisor, Expedia and others have strict policies limiting what is allowed to be included in online customer reviews.
So while readers might learn that a resort's seafood isn’t fresh and the beds are too hard, they won’t typically hear that guests were assaulted on the property or that they believed a bartender slipped something in their drinks.
When guests interviewed by the Journal Sentinel tried to describe what happened on those sites, they said their comments were rejected.
There is no central clearinghouse for that type of information.
It’s easy for those researching upcoming vacations to get a false sense of security, said Maureen Webster, who launched the site Mexicovacationawareness.com nearly 10 years ago, after her 22-year-old son, Nolan, drowned in the pool at a Mexican resort.
“Every time, every single time, something bad happens, they (Mexican resorts and authorities) blame the victim,” Webster said. “They say ‘They were drunk, they were drunk, they were drunk, they were drunk.’ Every single time.
“Shame on the (U.S.) government for not making this an issue,” she said. “It’s a big problem.”
In her son's case,Webster gathered statements from more than a dozen witnesses who were around the pool at the Grand Oasis in Cancun who said her son was not drunk. A Canadian nurse who was at the pool and came to his aid signed a statement saying resort officials forbid him from performing CPR on her son. Nolan was breathing at the time and hotel staff did nothing but watch him die, the nurse wrote.
Webster, who lives outside Boston, sued the resort and later reached a settlement.
Karen Smith, a long-time resident of New Jersey who now lives in Florida, has known Maureen Webster since 2013. That was the year Smith’s adult son, Brian Manucci, drowned in the same Grand Oasis pool where Nolan Webster died.
“There’s no accountability,” said Smith. “Even if it’s overserving, they promote this risky behavior, but have no means to handle it when it occurs.
“It’s just so mind boggling that something like this could occur, and it’s just like ‘Oh well.’”
More horrific details at the link:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/...o-suspected-drugging-tourists/490429001/
