Tulum Business Owners Say Police Still Extorting Tourists and Residents

Tulum, Quintana Roo — Business owners in this Caribbean beach destination say municipal police officers are still extorting tourists, residents and workers, and that local authorities have failed to punish those responsible.

The complaints come as Tulum struggles through a deepening tourism slump. Airlines have been dropping routes to the destination, businesses of every kind are closing and residents are losing their jobs. Seaweed buildup is widely cited as one cause, but entrepreneurs and residents point to another factor they say City Hall would rather ignore: police corruption.

“The issue is that some bad officers keep abusing and extorting tourists — and not only tourists, but residents and workers too. We have to eradicate those problems definitively,” businesswoman Migdalia Neyer said in an interview with Milenio Televisión.

Tow trucks add to the complaints

Neyer said extortion is not the only problem. Tow trucks are hauling away vehicles for reasons she described as implausible, which she said makes a comprehensive mobility plan essential.

“We have to solve the police extortion and the tow truck issue at the root, because if we don’t resolve mobility, we need an integrated mobility plan for Tulum. Tow trucks are seizing vehicles for every reason you can imagine, not for genuine emergencies,” she said.

Fellow Tulum businessman Salvador Tejeda said the practice has become a revenue stream for officers.

“We have to focus mainly on what hits us hardest and hits tourists hardest, which is police extortion — the tow trucks that look for any pretext to pull a tourist over, either to corrupt them or to haul their vehicle away and cash in,” he said.

Mayor accused of inaction

Residents and visitors have repeatedly publicly exposed abuses by Tulum’s municipal police, who critics say grew accustomed to a destination packed with visitors and took advantage of it with the complicity of the municipal government led by Mayor Diego Castañón. The mayor has been named in multiple allegations of suspected corruption in the resort town.

Some say occupancy falls to zero for six to eight months a year, leaving what was once an exclusive, highly sought-after destination looking more like a ghost town.

Casttañón pledged at one point to crack down on extortion, but business owners say nothing has changed — and that the situation may be worse, with fewer visitors arriving. The mayor, they argue, is focused on his own political future and what office he might seek next.

No sanctions have been announced against the officers accused of the abuses.