1. Shooting incident Tulum Mexico kills Los Angeles woman
2. Tulum Mexico shooting claims life of Los Angeles resident Niko Honarbakhsh.

Accident – Death – Obituary News :

American Woman and Belizean Man Killed in Drug Dealer Dispute at Tulum Beach Club

LOS ANGELES — An American woman originally from Los Angeles and a man from Belize were tragically killed during a dispute between drug dealers at a popular beach club in Tulum, a Mexican resort city, officials confirmed on Sunday.

Prosecutors in Quintana Roo, the Caribbean coast state where Tulum is located, emphasized that the American woman, identified as 44-year-old Niko Honarbakhsh, had no affiliation with the alleged drug dealer who was also killed in the shooting on Friday night. Tragically, Honarbakhsh seems to have been caught in the crossfire and lost her life.

Sources revealed that Honarbakhsh had been living in Cancun, a city near Tulum, according to ABC News.

Contrary to reports in the local media, prosecutors dismissed claims that Honarbakhsh and the Belizean man were a couple. They clarified that a photograph showed the Belizean man with an entirely different woman.

Belize, a Central American country, shares a border with Mexico on the Caribbean coast. Tulum is situated south of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, closer to Belize.

According to prosecutors, the deceased man was found with cocaine and pills in his possession, leading them to believe that he was involved in drug dealing. Authorities have identified the suspects involved in the shootings and are currently searching for them.

SEE ALSO: Americans who survived kidnapping in Mexico share details of captivity: ‘None of us deserved it’

Unfortunately, this is not the first instance of foreign tourists losing their lives due to being inadvertently caught in drug gang shootouts in the once-tranquil beach resort of Tulum.

In 2021, two tourists, one a California travel blogger of Indian origin and the other German, were fatally shot while dining at a local restaurant. They became unintended victims of a gunfight between rival drug dealers.

Concerns about safety in Mexico’s Caribbean beach resorts, including Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum, prompted the U.S. State Department to issue a travel alert last year. The advisory urged travelers to exercise heightened situational awareness, particularly after dark.

This tragic incident serves as a reminder of the ongoing security challenges faced by tourists in the region.

The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this report.

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1. Shooting in Tulum, Mexico kills woman from Los Angeles
2. Niko Honarbakhsh, living in Cancun, involved in shooting incident in Tulum, Mexico.