CANCUN, Mexico (NewsNation) — Gunfire broke out on a beach in Mexico’s Caribbean coast resort of Cancun on Tuesday in the latest in a string of drug-related attacks in prime tourist locations.

Lucio Hernández Gutiérrez, the chief of police of the coastal state of Quintana Roo, said the attackers apparently pulled up to the beach on jet skis and opened fire at a beach in Cancun’s hotel zone.

One witness to the attack, Rick Lebassa, a tourist from Maine, said two or three gunmen appeared to be shooting into the air with pistols, not at the beach.

“There were two guys and maybe even a third, who came in on jet skis, and what I saw was them shooting up into the sky,” Lebassa said. “I did not see any shots coming in toward the shoreline.”

Some called these warning shots aimed at the Mexican government as they take steps to assure tourists the country is safe.

Recently, the president of Mexico put together a special unit consisting of about 1,500 national guardsmen, and they’re patrolling the resorts there on the beaches.

Former U.S. Marshal Robert Almonte doesn’t think this will work.

“I think that just was done by the Mexican government to appease the resort owners and then also to appease the tourists,” Almonte said.

This is just another in a series of incidents as drug cartels battle over the lucrative area.

In October, two tourists were killed by stray bullets in nearby Tulum. In early November, guests at a Cancun beach ran for cover as two rival drug dealers were killed by the Sinaloa Cartel.

Experts inlcuding former DEA International Operations Chief Michael Vigil cautions that this is why tourists should stay away.

“You can be in a resort area, enjoying a nice dinner, and cartel gunmen will come in to kill a rival,” Vigil said. “Mexico is really not a safe place to go visit at this point in time, because of all the conflict between the cartels, (other) cartels and Mexico security forces. And the last thing you want to do is get caught in the crossfire.”