Immortalised in popular culture and now-seminal films such as The Godfather and Scarface, gangs seem so detached from our day-to-day lives that we forget that for some, their existence is an unfortunate reality. Sure, we've heard of the Aryan Brotherhood and the Yakuza, but sometimes the most dangerous gangs are the ones that we haven't heard of at all, so pervasive is the threat they hold.
Certainly, in some regions of South America, gangs such as the Bloods and Crips reside over small communities by instilling fear and via organized criminal activity. And that's something that
YouTube star, Juan Luis Lagunas Rosales (also known as El Pirata de Culiacan) sadly found out for himself.
According to the Mexican Facebook page, Guardia Nocturna, which specialises in providing breaking news,
Juan Luis Lagunas Rosales was
after poking fun at a cartel leader in one of his videos. Rosales, who boasted more than 260,000 followers on Instagram and nearly a million likes on Facebook, was purportedly shot dead
by four assassins at a bar in Mexico, called
Menta2 Cantaros
Just hours earlier, Rosales had posted on social media, inviting people via a public video to join him at the bar. This clearly wasn't a great idea, considering that he'd recently made a video that showed him making fun of renowned gang leader, El Mencho, who is also known as Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes - leader of the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generació (or the Jalisco New Generation Cartel).
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Reports allege that the four assassins fired 15 shots at Rosales with "long guns". A woman who was sitting with him also got caught up in the cross-fire and is apparently now in a private hospital, being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Rosales, who hails from Villa Juárez in Navolato, was known to live life on the edge. He became a social media superstar after posting a video in 2015 which promptly went viral. The video showed him drinking an entire bottle of vodka and then comically falling over.
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Fans of El Pirata de Culiacan took to social media to express their grief over what happened and to commemorate his life and legacy. One Instagram user wrote "May god keep him in his glory, this drunk man did not know what he said. People should not be making fun of his death, each life is precious. Unfortunately he just wanted to be accepted by society," while another added "He was wild af but still didn't deserve that".
This needless death only reinforces something that many citizens of Mexico already know: you should never, ever mess with gangs, even when you don't think anything will come of it. I mean, I'm sure that El Pirata de Culiacan was convinced that there would be no repercussions for his actions. And unfortunately, he had to pay the highest price.
