Drug baron ballads prove fatal for Mexican musicians

SINALOA - A Mexican singer who had increased his personal security because of rising violence has been shot dead hours after he had denied reports he had been murdered.

Sergio Vega, known as El Shaka, told an internet site he had increased security measures after a growing number of Mexican musicians were killed, according to the BBC.

Musicians performing songs celebrating the lives of drug barons, or narcocorridos, have become the targets of rival drug gangs.

Gunmen shot Vega, 40, on his way to a concert in Sinaloa state, the BBC reported.

Vega was driving his red Cadillac yesterday when a truck began to follow him, according to Mexican media.

His car was then shot at and Vega was injured and crashed after losing control of the vehicle, a passenger told El Debate newspaper.

The passenger said gunmen then "finished Mr Vega off" with shots to the head and chest.

The BBC said that police found spent bullet shells next to the driver's door.

Before the attack, rumours had spread among fans of the Grupero genre of music that Vega had been killed.

Just hours before he was shot, he told the entertainment website La Oreja that the rumours were wrong.

"It's happened to me for years now, someone tells a radio station or a newspaper I've been killed, or suffered an accident," Vega said.

"And then I have to call my dear mum, who has heart trouble, to reassure her," he told the website.

He told the site that while musicians performing Grupero music were worried, he had put his faith in God.

Vega had upped his security after Sergio Gomez, the singer of Grupero band K-Paz de la Sierra, was killed in 2007.

Gomez was kidnapped after a concert in Michoacan and found strangled several days later. Vega had played at the same concert.

At least seven Grupero musicians have been killed over the past three years.

Police blame drug gangs for the killings and say musicians who celebrate the lives of drug barons become targets for rival drug gangs.

- AGENCIES