Mexican singer Sergio Vega 'El Shaka' murdered hours after denying death

A Mexican singer - famous for his songs about the lives of drug barons - has been shot dead just hours after he denied reports of his murder. Sergio Vega, known as 'El Shaka', was shot in his red Cadillac while driving through Sinaloa state on his way to perform in a concert. The 40-year-old singer recently told a website he had increased security measures after a number of Mexican Grupero - country music - singers were killed.

The Mexican media has reported that unidentified men, traveling in a truck behind El Shaka's Cadillac, shot at the car. When Vega lost control of the vehicle and crashed, the gunmen then "finished Mr Vega off" by shooting him in the chest and head, according to his passenger. Just hours before the shooting, Mr Vega spoke to La Oreja website to deny rumors he had been murdered.

"It's happened to me for years now, someone tells a radio station or a newspaper I've been killed, or suffered an accident," Mr Vega said. "And then I have to call my dear mum, who has heart trouble, to reassure her." Musicians who sing narcocorridos, music which celebrates life as part of the drug industry, are often in danger as they risk being killed by rival gangs.

Several have been killed over the last three years, with Sergio Gomez, the singer of popular Grupero band K-Paz De La Sierra, kidnapped after a concert in 2007 and later found strangled. In a country where the drug trafficking generates around $50bn a year, cultural associations with the industry are common. Mexico even has an unofficial patron saint of drug dealers, a man called Jesus Malverde, who was killed by police in 1909 for reportedly robbing the rich to give to the poor.