4 city inspectors slain at Mexico's Playa del Carmen resort

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The tortured bodies of four municipal employees were found Saturday stuffed into a vehicle in Mexico’s Caribbean coast resort of Playa del Carmen.

Prosecutors in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo said identified the victims as city employees, but gave no additional details.

Local officials later confirmed the four were municipal inspectors, and said their bodies showed signs of torture.

Playa del Carmen has long had a problem with illicit businesses, drug sales at shops and beach front restaurants taking over the beach zone. City inspectors are supposed to enforce local codes at such establishments.

It was the latest bit of bad news for the Caribbean coast, where sargassum seaweed has arrived unusually early this year.

Workers and volunteers have begun gathering mounds of seaweed on the beaches, almost two months earlier than usual. The noxious-smelling sea algae usually doesn’t arrive on Mexico’s Caribbean coast until late March or April.

Last year also saw a big influx of sargassum, almost as bad as the peak year of 2018.