Tourist Police Separated Over Extortion Claims in Cancún

Cancún. Three officers from the Tourist Police have been temporarily separated from their duties after a Colombian tourist couple filed a formal complaint alleging arbitrary detention, assault, and demands for money during an intervention in the Hotel Zone.

The incident took place in front of a nightclub located at kilometer 9 of Kukulcán Boulevard. According to the complainants’ account, they were having a verbal argument when they were approached by the police officers, who proceeded to detain them despite, as they stated, not causing disturbances or endangering others.

The couple was transported to an operational base, where they were separated. The complainant reported that, before being taken to the facilities, he attempted to offer $120 to avoid detention, but this amount was rejected. Once at the base, he stated that the officers asked him to deliver more money in exchange for allowing him to retrieve his wife, even authorizing him to leave the site to obtain cash.

The visitor indicated that in his first attempt he gathered $400, but the delivery did not result in his companion’s release.

He said that on a second occasion he withdrew $500 more, although these were also not accepted under the argument that “a larger amount was missing.”

Upon reuniting with his wife, he stated that he found her with visible injuries and restrained to a metal structure. The woman declared that she was assaulted after requesting information about her situation and that the assaults would have been committed by female personnel under the instruction of a male officer.

After their release, the couple went before the State Attorney General’s Office, where case file FGE/QROO/CAN/UAT/11/12893/2025 was opened for the crimes of abuse of authority, injuries, illegal deprivation of liberty, and extortion.

The state agency reported that it initiated the corresponding investigation and that three tourist police officers were separated from their positions while proceedings advance to determine if there is criminal or administrative responsibility.