Tulum's municipal security office reported a 74 percent drop in intentional homicides and a 76 percent reduction in high-impact crimes between May 4 and June 21, citing coordinated operations across three levels of government.
Edgar Aguilar Rico, secretary of Public Security and Citizen Protection, presented the figures during the weekly municipal briefing "Tulum Comunica y Avanza" led by Mayor Diego Castañón Trejo. For a destination that markets itself on safety, a reported fall in violent crime speaks directly to the municipality's economic argument to visitors and investors.
The announcement matters now because Tulum has spent the past two years contending with episodes of cartel-linked violence that drew travel warnings and unsettled its tourism trade. Each official security balance becomes part of how the destination defends its image.
Inside Tulum's reported crime reduction
Aguilar Rico said the reductions cover the period from May 4 to June 21 and stem from joint work between municipal, state, and federal corporations and the State Attorney General's Office. He credited the State Executive Secretariat of the Public Security System as the source of the comparison.
Today we have a 74 percent reduction in intentional homicides and a 76 percent reduction in high-impact crimes, a result of the coordinated work between the security forces and the State Attorney General's Office.
High-impact crimes is the category Mexican authorities use for the most serious offenses, among them homicide, kidnapping, extortion, and violent robbery. A reported drop in that bracket is the metric officials lean on most when they argue that a city is becoming safer.
Thirty arrests, seized weapons, and recovered vehicles
Over the same period, authorities reported 30 people detained and handed to prosecutors. Of those, 23 were held for crimes against health, the legal category covering drug offenses; three for crimes against health combined with carrying a prohibited weapon; two for resisting authority; one for sexual abuse; and one for damages and injuries.
Officials also reported seizing four short firearms in 9 millimeter and .380 calibers, more than 1,314 doses of suspected narcotics including marijuana, crystal meth, crack, and cocaine, and two motorcycles that carried theft reports. The seizures point to street-level drug enforcement as the bulk of the activity behind the numbers.
Detentions tied to disappearance and homicide cases
Among the arrests the secretariat singled out as significant was that of José Hugo "N," known by the alias "El Chucho," whom authorities described as allegedly linked to investigations into the disappearance of persons and a homicide. Two others identified as Alfredo "N" and Jacinto "N" were named in investigation files for attempted homicide and other violent incidents in the municipality.
None of the three has been convicted. The municipal account presents them as connected to open investigations, and the cases remain with ministerial authorities, which will determine whether charges hold.
More than 200 officers are entering new training
Alongside the enforcement figures, the municipal government announced an expansion of police training. The secretariat said 130 officers are taking a human rights course, 19 agents will begin initial formation, and 59 more will receive instruction in basic competencies.
Local authorities described the program as part of a push for a more professional force, closer to residents and better equipped to handle public security demands. The framing ties the arrests to a longer institutional plan rather than a single sweep, the same argument the administration has used to explain its results.
Percentages presented without the underlying counts
The briefing reported the reductions as percentages but did not publish the absolute number of homicides recorded in either the current window or the baseline it was measured against. Without those counts, the real scale of the change stays unclear, and a high percentage can rest on small absolute numbers.
Earlier editions of the same briefing cited different figures. In early May, officials reported a homicide reduction above 70 percent, and for the first quarter of 2026, the municipal government claimed an 83 percent drop. The percentage moves with the comparison period chosen, which is why the absolute counts matter.
The data attributed to the State Executive Secretariat has not been independently verified by The Tulum Times. Officials said coordination between institutions would continue, leaving the next security balance as the test of whether the reported trend holds.
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