ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Five hundred police officers in this resort city will be fired because they failed tests used to identify corrupt officers, the mayor announced Friday.

Mayor Luis Walton Aburto said he will ask the federal government to send in federal agents to help what is left of the 1,700-officer police force provide security in the city of 800,000 people. He said the officers would be let go in January.

Police corruption has been a constant problem in Mexico, where poorly paid and poorly trained officers are easily corrupted by drug cartels.

Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire said this week that there are 43,000 state and local police who failed confidence tests and should be dismissed.

Drug violence has grown in Acapulco since the December 2009 killing of cartel boss Arturo Beltran Leyva, which set off fighting among factions of the Beltran Leyva cartel.