The woman murdered in Tulum was the wife of a former DEA agent

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Niko Honarbakhsh, the American woman who was murdered in Tulum in an armed attack at a beach club last Friday, Feb. 9th, was the wife of a former agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration in the United States (DEA), who worked in Cancun as head of security for the internet provider GigNet.

The events in question took place at the beach club of the Mio hotel, at kilometer seven of the Tulum-Boca Paila highway, when a subject attacked a man, of Belizean origin, with bullets, and accidentally killed the woman. The alleged target, Shawn Billany, died as well some time later in a hospital.

Some local media initially claimed that the two victims were a couple, but the State Attorney General’s Office clarified that they had no relationship and that, apparently, the Belizean was being chased by armed individuals and sought refuge in this beach club, where he was attacked.

Although the authority did not provide more information about the other victim, the British newspaper Daily Mail revealed that Niko Honarbakhsh, 44, was the wife of a former DEA agent, Karl Perman, whom she married in 2023.