Mexican gang boss “El Mencho” was buried in a shiny gold coffin as heavily armed soldiers guarded his funeral.
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, who led the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was killed during a shoot-out with the Mexican army as government forces raided his mountain compound.
A service was held for the 59-year-old on Monday on the outskirts of the country’s second city of Guadalajara, with enormous floral wreaths and a huge military presence seen at the cemetery.
Dozens of mourners followed the procession, many carrying black umbrellas despite it being a sunny day, and a band played ‘banda’ music, which is popular in the Sinaloa region.
Cervantes and two of his bodyguards died after they were wounded in a military operation by Mexican special forces with “intelligence” from the US used to track him to his hillside villa hideout.
He later died while being flown to a hospital in Mexico City for treatment. The death certificate said Cervantes suffered bullet wounds to his chest, stomach and legs.
After an autopsy was performed, his body was returned to his family on Saturday, the Attorney General’s Office said.
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Mexican authorities have not officially revealed the location of Cervantes’s burial for “security reasons”, but an official confirmed his final resting place to The Associated Press.
Security around a nearby funeral home had been stepped up in recent days, with flower arrangements seen arriving without a name. Some were in the shape of a rooster, a possible reference to Cervantes’s nickname – the “Lord of the Roosters”.
Cervantes death on 22 February sparked violence across 20 states in Mexico, which left more than 70 people dead.
Cartel henchmen blockaded highways by burning cars and torched businesses, with tourists in Jalisco’s popular beach resort of Puerto Vallarta told to shelter.
The military operation was launched following mounting pressure on Mexico from Washington to intensify an offensive against drug gangs blamed for producing and smuggling fentanyl into the US.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel was designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the Trump administration earlier last month.
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The burials of drug lords in Mexico have historically been surrounded by mystery and legend.
Within hours of Cervantes’s death, there were already ballads, known as narcocorridos, circulating about his killing.
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In the neighbouring state of Sinaloa in Culiacan, there is a cemetery known for its luxury crypts and mausoleums for one-time kingpins like Ignacio Coronel – an old associate of Cervantes’s – and Arturo Beltrán Leyva.
Another drug lord was famously killed twice – Nazario Moreno, leader of the Knights Templar cartel – who authorities claimed died in 2010, only for him to be gunned down in reality during a shoot-out with police in 2014.
Sometimes the bodies disappear, like in the case of Heriberto Lazcano, a leader of the Zetas, whose body was stolen in 2012.
