SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The bodies of five men, bound with plastic handcuffs and shot in the head, were found in a quarry in Costa Rica on Wednesday, the latest murders to blight the country, a popular U.S. tourist destination.

Police found the bodies about 9 miles (15 kms) from the border with Panama after an anonymous tip-off, judicial police chief Jorge Rojas told a news conference.

"It seems the men were foreigners," he said, adding that they had yet to be formally identified.

Rojas said the murders were similar to those of five Panamanians who were shot in December in a battle between drug gangs.

Costa Rica, which has no standing army and is best known for its volcanoes and lush tropical wildlife, is experiencing a sharp rise in drug violence, especially in southern and coastal areas, as South American cocaine trafficking rises.

Over the past 18 months, Costa Rican police and the U.S. Coast Guard have seized a record 60 tonnes of cocaine along the Central American nation's Pacific and Atlantic coast. (Reporting by John McPhaul)

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