Mexican authorities found the bodies of four people, later identified as municipal employees, on Saturday, February 11, stuffed in a car parked in Playa del Carmen, a beach resort located on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.
Law enforcement said the four deceased were municipal inspectors and that they found signs of extensive torture on all of the bodies.
Playa del Carmen has gained a dangerous reputation as it has long had illegal businesses, shops selling drugs, and the beach zone getting taken over by beachfront restaurants.
The city inspector’s job is to enforce local codes at the businesses.
In March last year, police found the bodies of four people dumped near a housing development in the Playa del Carmen resort town. The prosecutor’s office said that none of the bodies showed any signs of torture or bullet wounds, so it was unclear what caused their deaths.
They said the bodies were dumped in shrubs near a road, indicating a gang-style killing.
Various incidents of violence plagued Playa del Carmen last year. In January 2022, two Canadians were killed at a resort reportedly because of debts between gangs involved in drugs and weapons trafficking.
In July 2022, two other Canadians were found dead in the resort town. One of them was sought by Interpol, and the two, a man and woman, were found with knife wounds, while a third person was injured.
There were several other violent acts in other places along the resort-studded Maya Riviera Coast of Mexico, which is also home to Cancun and Tulum.
In November 2022, there was a shootout on Puerto Morelos beach, which left two people dead. The two dead were suspected drug dealers, and the shootout involving around 15 shooters was because of a gang dispute about narcotics selling turf.
In October, in the tourist town of Tulum, two foreigners, a California travel blogger and a German were killed after getting caught in the crossfire of rival drug gangs.
In March, authorities in Guanajuato, Mexico’s most dangerous state, found seven burned bodies in the back of a pickup truck on the side of the road and found another body near the truck.
