Acapulco had a Tourism Police force having a mandate to aid the most important industry of this Pacific coastal resort city in Mexico.
Not only the Tourism Police, but the entire Acapulco Police Force was disarmed by Federal Police as investigators look into suspicions that it has been infiltrated by drug gangs.
According to The Associated Press, officers “were stripped of their guns, radios and bullet-proof vests and taken for background checks. Law enforcement duties in the seaside city of 800,000 will be taken over by soldiers, marines and state police.”
The step was taken “because of suspicion that the force had probably been infiltrated by criminal groups.
Officials in Guerrero, the state where Acapulco is located on Mexico’s southwestern Pacific coast, also issued arrest warrants for two city police commanders accused of murder.
Guerrero is considered one of the most violent regions in Mexico, with criminal gangs overseeing the cultivation of poppies for the production of heroin.
Acapulco was once a glittering resort for foreign travelers and is now seen as “Mexico’s murder capital.”
