An American woman died from a stray bullet after being caught in a shootout between rival drug dealers at a beach club in the Mexican resort town of Tulum, officials said.
The US citizen was not related to the suspected drug trafficker from Belize who was also killed in Friday night’s violence, prosecutors in Quintana Roo state insisted.
She has not been officially identified by officials, but sources told ABC News that the dead woman is Niko Honarbakhsh, a 44-year-old native of Los Angeles who lives in Cancun, Mexico.
Prosecutors believe he was caught in the crossfire and hit by a stray bullet.
They denied local reports that he was romantically linked to the slain drug dealer suspect, insisting that photos from the scene showed a different woman to him.
The suspected dealer – nicknamed “Belize” – had cocaine and pills when he was shot dead, officials said.
He was “identified for his possible participation” in “drug-related crimes” and “is part of a criminal group that generates violence in this state,” the attorney general said.
A 44-year-old woman from Los Angeles was shot dead during a gun battle between rival drug dealers at a beach club in Tulum, Mexico. Irina – stock.adobe.com
Suspects in the beach club shooting have been identified and police are hunting them. They had not been publicly named as of Monday.
Foreign tourists have been killed in the past after being caught up in drug-related shootouts in Tulum, which is south of Cancun and Playa del Carmen.
In 2021, Californian travel blogger Anjali Ryot and German Jennifer Henzold were killed while eating at a restaurant after being caught in the middle of a gun battle between rival drug dealers.
The once quiet resort town of Tulum has been the scene of several drug-related shootings that have claimed the lives of tourists. JDMainz – stock.adobe.com
Last year, the US State Department issued a travel warning warning Americans to “increase situational awareness,” especially after dark, in Mexico’s Caribbean beach resorts such as Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
