The wife of a former DEA special agent was shot to death when she was apparently caught in the crossfire of a dispute between drug cartels at a luxury Mexican resort on Sunday.
Prosecutors have stressed that the woman, named Niko Honarbakhsh, 44, had no connection to the dispute, in which a well-known local drug dealer named Shawn Billary, 22, who was from Belize, was also killed, but confirmed the connection of her husband, Karl Perman, with the DEA.
ABC News reports that Honarbaksh was living in Cancun, Mexico at the time of his 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 murdered at the Mia Beach club, which is part of the Selina Hotel.
Niko Honarbakhsh, 44, wife of a former DEA special agent, was shot to death when she apparently became caught in the crossfire of a dispute between drug cartels at a luxury Mexican resort on Sunday.
Prosecutors stressed that Honarbakhsh had no connection to the dispute.
Prosecutors said the dead man had cocaine and pills in his possession when he was murdered at the Mia Beach club, which is part of the Selina Hotel.
The Central American country of Belize shares a border with Mexico on the Caribbean coast. Tulum is located south of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, closer to Belize.
the universal reports that Billary was being pursued by his killers and sought refuge in the restaurant, where the fatal shots were fired. The newspaper states that two people are detained in connection with the shooting.
Authorities have confirmed that Billary was a member of a drug gang. He was first named by Belize News Now who said in a report that he was originally from Belize City.
According to posts on her Instagram page, Honarbaksh, known as Honar, split her time between Southern California and the Cancun area. She regularly posted photos of luxurious surroundings, including beach clubs and restaurants.
Her husband and dogs appear regularly in her posts. The couple married in 2013.
Online records show she and her husband had a home in Beverly Hills. The couple also had ties to Chicago, where Honar worked as a real estate agent for a time.
In March 2023, Perman was named chief security officer for GigNet, a real estate company operating 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 for the United States Army,” a Press release he said at that time.
According to posts on her Instagram page, Honarbaksh, known as Honar, split her time between Southern California and the Cancun area. She regularly posted photos of luxurious surroundings, including beach clubs and restaurants.
Online records show she and her husband had a home in Beverly Hills. The couple also had ties to Chicago, where Honar worked as a real estate agent for a time.
Influencer Niko Honarbakhsh, 44, from Beverly Hills, California, appears in photos on her Facebook page.
In 2011, he was named a Security Magazine Award Fellow. Most influential people in security.
A witness wrote in tripadvisor who was in the restaurant when Billary ran in, followed by another man, at around 6.40pm on Sunday.
“A tourist who was on vacation with her two dogs, a few meters from us, was hit by some of the stray bullets and died,” the man wrote.
He added that Billary was shot in the back, which slowed him down, causing the gunman to approach him and open fire several more times, killing him.
The witness was scathing in his criticism of the hotel staff.
‘The security at Mia had no idea what was happening nor did they control the two people who were shot. It was other beach guests who did it.
“The people working there almost acted like it was no big deal and didn’t give us instructions like, get off, get off the beach…none of them radioed the police or backup,” he wrote.
Another witness wrote that he thought they were fireworks when he heard the gunshots, adding that the gunman ran past him.
Honarbaksh was living in Cancun, Mexico, at the time of his death.
Honar was preparing to pay her bill when she was hit.
The woman was shot to death during the ordeal and Quintana Roo prosecutors stressed she had no connection to drug trafficking.
That witness said Honar was preparing to pay her bill when she was hit.
He also said hotel staff waited several minutes before checking on him.
A third witness, who also posted on TripAdvisor, said they were leaving when the commotion started.
The poster, with the username Giandrea84, wrote: ‘I am so sad to hear this. I was there all day and was about to leave when the shooting started.
‘I heard everything and saw something. I just ran away to the opposite side but there was so much confusion that no one knew what really happened.
‘I remember the lady with two dogs. She looked very happy during the day and the dogs were relaxing in the sand. When I read what happened to him I felt incredibly sad. “My thoughts are with the family.”
Honarbaksh’s husband and dogs regularly appear in her posts. The couple married in 2013.
Foreign tourists have been killed in the past after being caught in gunfights 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 in gunfights by drug gangs in the once quiet seaside resort.
In 2021, in Tulum, two tourists, one an Indian-born California travel blogger and the other German, were murdered while eating at a restaurant. They were apparently caught in the crossfire of a shootout between rival drug traffickers.
Last year, the U.S. State Department issued a travel alert warning travelers to “exercise heightened situational awareness,” especially after dark, in Mexican Caribbean beach resorts such as Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum.