MEXICO CITY (AP) — Ten employees of a bar in Mexico’s Caribbean resort of Playa del Carmen have been charged in the fatal stabbings of four municipal inspectors sent to check compliance with local codes, authorities said Tuesday.

Playa del Carmen has long had a reputation for rough and dangerous bars, but what allegedly happened at the city’s La Cueva bar on Feb. 11 appears to set a new standard of violence.

Assistant Public Safety Secretary Luis Rodríguez Bucio said Tuesday that the city inspectors went to the bar, whose name means “The Cave”, to inspect for compliance with city codes.

Bar employees allegedly stabbed the inspectors to death, stuffed their bodies in a car and left it elsewhere. The employees were caught mopping up the blood off the floor of the bar when police arrived.

Playa del Carmen has long had a problem with illicit businesses, drug sales at shops and beach front restaurants taking over the beach zone.

In 2017, a shooting attack at an electronic music festival in another bar in Playa del Carmen left five people dead, including two Canadians, an Italian and a Colombian.

In 2019, 7 men killed in a shooting attack at another bar in Playa del Carmen.

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