Colombian Tourist Accuses Playa del Carmen Police of Extorting 9,500 Pesos

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — A Colombian tourist who lives in Canada has publicly accused Playa del Carmen police of holding him for about six hours and demanding 9,500 pesos before letting him go.

The man posted a video on social media describing the encounter. He said the officers asked for his bank card and the personal identification number he uses for transactions, then took 9,500 pesos from his account.

According to his account, the officers told him that if anyone asked how much he had paid, he should name a smaller sum. He said the money was not a voluntary fine for an infraction but a demand tied directly to his release.

The complaint points to records that could be checked: the bank transaction, the time of the stop, the patrol unit involved and the identities of the officers on duty. Card transactions generate data on the amount, date, time and the establishment or device used. So far, no receipt for the 9,500-peso transaction has been made public.

Nor has any official document been released explaining why he was stopped, whether an administrative infraction was recorded, or whether he was brought before any authority during the roughly six hours he says he was held.

Case surfaces amid heavy camera coverage

The allegation comes as the Playa del Carmen municipal government has expanded video surveillance of police work. In April, the administration announced the arrival of 424 body cameras: 144 with live streaming and monitoring, remote connectivity and cloud storage, and 280 that record in high resolution to internal storage. Most went to units that deal directly with residents and visitors — the Preventive Police, the Traffic Police and the Tourist Police.

In March, the municipality also announced an investment of more than 38.7 million pesos in equipment for the Public Security Department, part of a strategy that included body cameras and other surveillance devices.

The city’s tourist corridor also has 121 surveillance cameras — 84 fixed and 37 pan-tilt-zoom units — covering high-traffic areas including Fifth Avenue, Tenth Avenue, Parque Fundadores, the beaches and sections of the federal maritime-land zone.

Police activity in those areas has risen. Between January and September 2026, the municipal government reported 1,332 operations, 8,424 inspections of people and vehicles and 2,905 preventive patrols in the tourist zone, along with 2,176 instances of assistance to foreign tourists.

No body camera footage, surveillance system recordings or administrative paperwork specifically related to the episode described by the tourist has been released publicly.

The allegation is notable because Playa del Carmen is one of the main tourist destinations on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, drawing thousands of Mexican and foreign visitors every day.