Mexico: American Woman Killed in Crossfire During Drug Dispute at Tulum Beach Club

A woman from Los Angeles was killed in a crossfire in Mexico in a drug dispute at a beach resort in Tulum.

Prosecutors in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo said the American woman killed in the gunfire, 44-year-old Niko Honarbakhsh, had no connection whatsoever to the drug dealers. She was living in Cancun, ABC News reported.

A man from Belize was also killed in the crossfire.

ABC News reported:

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

Prosecutors in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo stressed the American woman had no connection to an alleged drug dealer also killed in the shooting Friday night. According to ABC News, the woman, identified as 44-year-old Niko Honarbakhsh, was apparently caught in the crossfire and was killed.

Honarbakhsh was living in Cancun, sources told ABC News.

Prosecutors denied reports in local media that the two may have been a couple, saying a photo of the Belizean man showed him with a completely different woman.

Cartel violence has spilled over into the tourist resorts along Mexico’s Caribbean coast.

Last year a US tourist was shot in the leg at a resort in Quintana Roo.

According to reports, the tourist was approached by a group of men at a resort in Puerto Morelos near Cancun and they shot him in the leg.

The American was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for a non-life-threatening injury.

In 2022, two Canadians were found dead with their throats slashed in Mexico’s Playa del Carmen.

The couple was found dead at a hotel condominium and a security guard was injured, Quintana Roo state prosecutors said.

In October 2021, two travel bloggers visiting Tulum were caught in the crossfire of rival gangs and died.