Niko Honarbakhsh : “Tulum Shooting: LA Woman Killed, Niko Honarbakhsh in Cancun”

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

According to prosecutors in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo, the American woman, identified as 44-year-old Niko Honarbakhsh, had no connection to the alleged drug dealer who was also killed in the shooting on Friday night. Tragically, Honarbakhsh was caught in the crossfire and lost her life.

Sources revealed that Honarbakhsh had been residing in Cancun at the time of the incident.

Dispelling rumors circulating in local media, prosecutors denied reports suggesting that the two victims were a couple. They clarified that a photograph of the Belizean man depicted him with an entirely different woman.

Belize, a Central American country that shares a border with Mexico along the Caribbean coast, is located south of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, in close proximity to Tulum.

Prosecutors revealed that the deceased man was found with cocaine and pills in his possession, indicating his involvement in drug dealing activities. The authorities have identified the suspects involved in the shootings and are currently conducting a search operation to apprehend them.

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Tragically, this is not the first time that foreign tourists have fallen victim to drug gang shootouts in the once-tranquil beach resort of Tulum. In 2021, two tourists, one a California travel blogger born in India and the other from Germany, were fatally shot while dining at a restaurant. They were unfortunate bystanders caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival drug dealers.

In light of such incidents, the U.S. State Department had issued a travel alert in the previous year, urging travelers to exercise increased situational awareness, particularly after dark, when visiting Mexico’s Caribbean beach resorts such as Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum.

The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this report.