The wife of a former Drug Enforcement Agency special agent was shot dead Sunday when she was apparently caught in the crossfire of a drug cartel dispute at a luxury Mexican resort.
Prosecutors have insisted that the woman, named Niko Honarbakhsh, 44, was not connected to the dispute, which also killed a well-known local drug dealer named Shawn Billary, 22, who was from Belize, but confirmed her husband’s connection, Karl Perman, with the DEA.
ABC news reports that Honarbaksh was living in Cancun, Mexico at the time of her death.
Prosecutors denied local media reports that the two may have been a couple, saying a photo of the Belizean man showed him with a completely different woman.
Prosecutors said the dead man had cocaine and pills in his possession when he was killed at the Mia Beach club, which is part of the Selina Hotel.
Niko Honarbakhsh, 44, the wife of a former Drug Enforcement Agency special agent, was shot dead when she was apparently caught in the crossfire of a drug cartel dispute at a luxury Mexican resort on Sunday
Prosecutors have emphasized that the Honarbakhsh were not connected to the dispute
Prosecutors said the dead man had cocaine and pills in his possession when he was killed at the Mia Beach club, which is part of the Selina Hotel.
The Central American country Belize shares a border with Mexico on the Caribbean coast. Tulum is located south of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, closer to Belize.
El Universal reports that Billary was chased by his killers and that he took refuge in the restaurant, where the fatal shots were fired. According to the newspaper, two people are in custody in connection with the shooting.
Officials confirmed that Billary was a member of a drug gang. He was first mentioned by Belize News Now who said in a report that he was from Belize City.
According to posts on her Instagram page, Honarbaksh, who went by Honar, split her time between Southern California and the Cancun area. She regularly posted photos from luxurious settings, including beach clubs and restaurants.
Her husband and dogs regularly appear in her messages. The couple married in 2013.
Online records show that she and her husband had a home in Beverly Hills. The couple also had ties to Chicago, where Honar worked for a time as a real estate agent.
In March 2023, Perman was appointed Chief Security Officer for GigNet, a real estate company active in Mexico and the Caribbean.
“Prior to entering the private sector, Mr. Perman served as a law enforcement professional at the municipal and federal levels. He also served in military intelligence and military police positions for the U.S. Army.” press release said at the time.
According to posts on her Instagram page, Honarbaksh, who went by Honar, split her time between Southern California and the Cancun area. She regularly posted photos from luxurious settings, including beach clubs and restaurants
Online records show that she and her husband had a home in Beverly Hills. The couple also had ties to Chicago, where Honar worked for a time as a real estate agent
Influencer Niko Honarbakhsh, 44, from Beverly Hills, California, is seen in photos from her Facebook page
In 2011 he was appointed member of Security magazine Most influential people in the security sector.
One witness wrote further TripAdvisor that he was at the restaurant when Billary entered, followed by another man around 6:40 p.m. Sunday.
“A tourist on vacation with her two dogs, just a few meters away from us, was hit by several stray bullets and killed,” the man wrote.
He added that Billary was shot once in the back, which slowed him down, prompting the gunman to walk up to him and open fire several more times, killing him.
The witness was scathing in his criticism of the hotel staff.
“The security at the Mia had no idea what was going on, nor did they check on the two people who were shot. Other beach guests did that.’
The people working there almost acted like it was no big deal, not giving any of us instructions such as: get down, get off the beach… none of them called on the radio for the police or reinforcements,” he wrote.
Another witness wrote that he thought it was fireworks when he heard the booms, adding that the gunman ran right past him.
Honarbaksh was living in Cancun, Mexico at the time of her death.
Honar was preparing to pay her bill when she was hit
The woman was shot dead during the ordeal – and prosecutors in Quintana Roo insisted she was not linked to the drug deal
That witness said Honar was preparing to pay her bill when she was hit.
He also said the hotel staff waited several minutes before looking at her.
A third witness, who also posted on TripAdvisor, said they were leaving when the commotion started.
The poster, with the username Giandrea84, wrote: ‘I’m so sad to hear this. I was there all day and was about to leave when the shooting started.
‘I heard everything and saw some. I just ran out the other side, but there was so much confusion that no one knew what had really happened.
‘I remember the lady with two dogs. She looked so happy during the day and the dogs were chilling on the sand. When I read what happened to her, I felt incredibly sad. My thoughts are with the family.’
Honarbaksh’s husband and dogs regularly feature in her posts. The couple married in 2013
Foreign tourists have been killed in the past after being caught shooting by drug gangs in the once quiet seaside resort
In 2011, Honarbaksh’s husband was named among Security magazine’s Most Influential People in Security.
Foreign tourists have been killed in the past after being caught shooting by drug gangs in the once quiet seaside resort.
In 2021, two tourists – one a Californian travel blogger born in India and the other German – were killed in Tulum while eating at a restaurant. They apparently got caught in the crossfire of a shootout between rival drug dealers.
Last year, the U.S. State Department issued a travel alert warning travelers to “practice heightened situational awareness,” especially after dark, in Mexico’s Caribbean beach resorts such as Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum.