A Canadian YouTuber and a friend were assaulted and robbed by police in Playa del Carmen, according to a video recounting the episode that was uploaded to the “Tony’s Travels” YouTube channel.
After a night out on Playa’s 5th Avenue, the two men were returning to their hostels in the early hours of April 22 when they were intercepted by three police officers.
An officer accused the pair of carrying drugs, which they denied. When they refused to get into the police car an officer engaged the YouTuber in a “wrestling match.”
The Canadian escaped from the officer, but his friend was subdued.
The YouTuber returned to the scene filming the officers with his cellphone, which they managed to grab, and proceeded to delete all evidence.
The police took all the cash the pair was carrying, which was 2,400 pesos (US $120) in total.
One of the two men said he believes that Playa del Carmen police work together with drug dealers on 5th Avenue, because when he arrived at his hostel he was approached by a dealer. Immediately after, police appeared and searched him.
“The Playa del Carmen police stopped us and robbed us, saying that we have drugs, that we are breaking some laws when we are not doing anything illegal, simply to steal the pesos that we have in our pockets … The police are bandits,” he said.
The YouTuber said neither he nor his friend were carrying drugs and had had no plans to buy any. He said his friend was searched another three times on the way to his accommodation. “He was not stumbling or wasted. He was just an easy target because he was alone.”
On his YouTube channel he received more than a dozen messages of support from others who had experienced similar situations in Playa del Carmen.
Source: Noticaribe (sp)
