MEXICO CITY: The drive-by shooting death of a Mexican influencer may have been in retaliation for social media posts about a criminal group, authorities said Wednesday.
Gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead Cesar Gastelum late Tuesday during a livestreamed broadcast in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, which has been a battleground for warring drug factions.
Gastelum was dressed as a food distributor alongside two friends as part of a social media challenge to his over 500,000 TikTok followers. His audience watched as a motorcycle came to a stop alongside him and one of the two men riding shot him in the head.
The video — later removed by content moderators — was also recorded on security cameras.
“The lines of investigation include numerous publications, some of which refer to a criminal group,” Mexico’s Security Cabinet posted on X, referring to online posts, without providing further details.
