A Los Angeles woman was killed in a shootout 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 shooting, 44-year-old Niko Honarbakhsh, had no connection whatsoever to drug traffickers. ABC News reported that she was living in Cancun.
A Belizean man was also killed in the shootout.
ABC News reported:
An American woman from Los Angeles and a man from Belize were killed in an apparent dispute between drug dealers at a beach club in the Mexican resort city of Tulum, officials confirmed Sunday.
Prosecutors in the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo stressed that the American woman had no connection to an alleged drug dealer who was also killed in the shooting on Friday night. According to ABC News, the woman, identified as 44-year-old Niko Honarbakhsh, appeared to have been caught in the crossfire and killed.
Sources told ABC News that Honarbakhsh was living in Cancun.
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.
Gang violence has spread to tourist resorts along Mexico's Caribbean coast.
Last year, an American tourist was shot in the leg at a resort in Quintana Roo.
According to reports, a group of men approached the tourist at a resort in Puerto Morelos near Cancun and 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 slit in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Quintana Roo state prosecutors said the couple were found dead in a hotel apartment complex, and a security guard was injured.
In October 2021, two travel bloggers visiting Tulum were caught in a shootout between rival gangs and died.
