This glamorous former girlfriend of an assassinated cartel leader has been shot dead after she was tricked into going to sell shoes to a fake client.

Armed men on motorbikes shot Paulina Arreola Perez, aged 26, and male friend identified as Eduardo Arturo Trejo in the borough of Benito Juarez in Mexico City on the night of 9th June.

Paulina was shot at least nine times and Eduardo twice inside Paulina’s car. Paramedics arrived on the scene and took them to hospital, where they both succumbed to their injuries.

Paulina had lived a life of luxury with her mobster boyfriend, travelling around the world and wearing designer clothing.

However, since his death, she had moved to selling shoes online, and she was allegedly lured into the trap by an unnamed suspect who posed as a prospective buyer.

It is believed she was targeted because of her links to the criminal group ‘La Union Tepito’, which is involved in the sale of narcotics, kidnapping, extortion and murder in and around the Mexican capital.

Paulina was the girlfriend of Alexis ‘El Alexis’ Martinez, one of the cartel’s leaders, who was murdered by a hitman disguised as a food deliveryman in the city of Zapopan in March.

Through El Alexis, Paulina’s life of luxury that she flaunted on social media included shots of her on holiday in the likes of Dubai, Athens and Toronto, much of it paid for with cloned credit cards.

Following her boyfriend’s death, the young woman took to social media to write: “Someday we will meet again.”

Paulina has become the third girlfriend of a member of La Union Tepito to meet her fate, following the killings of Valeria Diaz in May last year and Nayibi Mustafa in March.

The trio was known as ‘Las novias de La Union’ (‘The Union girlfriends’).