Several politicians illegally seized at least 10,594 linear meters of beach in Dzilam de Bravo and Celestún in 2016, Diario de Yucatán reported.
The newspaper characterized the crime as the “largest real estate fraud known so far in Yucatán.”
A legislator and two former mayors, as well as other officials linked to a previous state administration, were named in the report.
The illegal operation created cadastral, or taxable, lots from federally protected land.
The mayors of Dzilam de Bravo and Celestún awarded 74 “free of charge” properties to allies between 2015 and 2018, the newspaper reported.
Shell companies later sold some of those parcels at bargain prices to Yucatecan and foreign investors, or to family and friends, Diario reported.
Most of these beach lots are located between the coast and the Santa Clara-Dzilam and Celestún-Sisal highways.
