A state health official in Tulum allegedly posed as a federal Cofepris inspector for years, extorting business owners during sanitary inspections, according to merchants and the municipal anticorruption commission.
The accusations land on a business community already under strain, and they raise a question with consequences far beyond one office: who has actually been inspecting Tulum's hotels, restaurants, and shops, and under what authority. For a destination whose economy depends on establishments that must pass sanitary reviews to operate, the answer matters to nearly everyone.
An Alleged Federal Identity That Did Not Exist
Business owners and municipal authorities have identified the official at the center of the case as Emigdio Morales, who runs the local service window of the Direction for Protection against Sanitary Risks (DPRIS), an agency of the Quintana Roo Health Secretariat. According to those accusations, Morales presented himself during inspections as a representative of the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks, known as Cofepris, a federal agency he does not work for.
Eugenio Barbachano, the council member who chairs the City Council's Anticorruption Commission, said he is analyzing a criminal complaint for usurpation of functions. In his account, Morales operated for years as a supposed Cofepris representative while actually belonging to the state agency.
None of the accusations has been proven in court, and Morales has not publicly responded to them.
What Business Owners Describe During Tulum Health Inspections
Merchants in Tulum say Morales and other inspectors identified themselves as Cofepris personnel during sanitary verifications and demanded payments to avoid closures or sanctions. Some business owners said they handed over money on multiple occasions out of fear of reprisals.
Their accounts match a broader pattern reported by regional media in recent days. Business owners quoted in press reports described inspections that felt designed to find a fault at any cost, with irregular payments said to range from 20,000 to 50,000 pesos. Some small business operators told reporters they were offered a choice between costly formal compliance and monthly payments of around 5,000 pesos.
The complaints come mostly from the tourism sector, where a suspension order can wipe out a high season and where few owners can afford a prolonged dispute with an inspector, real or not.
Cofepris Says It Has No Office in Quintana Roo
After the case became public, Cofepris issued a clarification that reframed the entire affair. The federal agency stated on July 14 that it has no municipal delegation in Quintana Roo, and that sanitary surveillance in the state corresponds exclusively to DPRIS, the state Health Secretariat's risk protection office.
In plain terms, anyone who knocked on a Tulum business's door claiming to inspect on behalf of Cofepris was not doing so with the agency's authority. Cofepris called on affected business owners to report any act of corruption and pointed complainants to its citizen reporting channels, including the 079 hotline.
A Wider Cleanup Inside Tulum City Hall
The case surfaces amid a broader shakeup of the municipal government. Barbachano revealed in late June that more than 50 public servants had been dismissed in Tulum as part of an administrative reorganization tied to irregularities, a process his commission has been publicizing week by week.
That context cuts both ways. It suggests the current administration has an appetite for pursuing internal misconduct, and it also means the Morales accusations will be read as a test of whether that appetite extends to cases involving state-level personnel operating in the municipality.
State Government Yet to Respond
So far, neither the Government of Quintana Roo nor the state Health Secretariat has issued an official position on the accusations against an official of its own structure. That silence is now the most conspicuous element of the case.
Business owners in the tourism sector are demanding an investigation and sanctions if the irregularities are confirmed. The next concrete step belongs to Barbachano's commission, which must decide whether to formally file the usurpation of functions complaint, and to the state government, which will eventually have to say whether it stands behind its Tulum service window or opens it to scrutiny.
Until one of those things happens, every sanitary inspection in Tulum will be met with a question that should never have been necessary: who exactly is asking.
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