4 men found dead at Mexican beach resort of Playa del Carmen

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Authorities in the troubled Caribbean resort of Playa del Carmen said Thursday they found the bodies of four men dumped near a housing development.

The prosecutors office in the state of Quintana Roo said the mens’ bodies did not show signs of bullet wounds, so it was unclear how they died.

But the fact the bodies were dumped together in the shrubs beside an access road suggested a gangland-style killing.

Playa del Carmen has been hit by several instances of violence, most recently in January, when two Canadians were killed at a local resort, apparently because of debts between international drug and weapons trafficking gangs.

There have been a series of brazen acts of violence along Mexico’s resort-studded Mayan Riviera coast, the crown jewel of the country’s tourism industry.

In November, a shootout on the beach of Puerto Morelos, just north of Playa del Carmen, left two suspected drug dealers dead. Authorities said some 15 gunmen were from a gang that apparently disputed control of drug sales there.

In late October, farther south in the laid-back destination of Tulum, two tourists — one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German — were caught in the apparent crossfire of rival drug dealers and killed.

Also Thursday, prosecutors in the north-central state of Guanajuato — long Mexico's most violent state — said seven bodies had been found burned in the bed of a pickup truck.

The truck was found on the side of the road near the city of Celaya, and another body was found nearby.

Guanajuato has been the scene of bloody turf wars between the Jalisco cartel and local gangs.