Mexican drug lords show off their lavish lifestyles with Instagram pics of bikini-clad women and gold-plated guns

Wads of cash and big guns are appearing on the social media accounts of Mexican cartel members as they compete to be Narco King of Instagram

Man with the golden gun: One of the social media photos in the Narco King war

They may have built their fortunes on the misery of thousands, but that has not stopped Mexican drug lords from using social media to boast about their fabulous wealth.
Bikini-clad women, gold-plated guns, wads of cash and big guns are appearing on the social media accounts of Mexican cartel members as they compete to be Narco King of Instagram.
Using the hashtags #narcos and #narcostyle on Instagram and Twitter, Mexicans have shown off their extravagant tastes.
Girls in bikinis are draped over quad bikes while another frolics beside a swimming pool with a tiger.

Exotic: Some of their photographs display a penchant for wildlife and women

Gains: Money spills out of designer bags in many photographs

Others show off designer handbags overflowing with money, bejewelled shoes next to pistols, or car keys from their Bentleys and Ferraris artfully arranged.
Some images show the bloodier side of the gangs, with some boasting about Mexican police and army vehicles shot to pieces following stand-offs with the cartel.

Narcoofficial/Instagram

Hideous: The taste of these drug lords is shown to be far from restrained

One image uploaded by the ‘narcoofficial’ account shows a Federal Police car with several bullet holes following a shootout with the Sinaloa Cartel. The caption under it reads: "Ha ha ha, nothing happened here".
One member of the Sinaloa Cartel even posted a picture of his son wearing body armour and holding an assault rifle, captioning his photograph: "education starts early in our family".
It is believed this trend was started by the children of Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, known as El Chapo, who is the current boss of the Sinaloa Cartel.

 

Riches: They collect supercars as others would stamps

He escaped maximum security prison two months ago through a tunnel built by his criminal organisation’s engineering department.
The cartel’s $3billion annual profits from their U.S. narcotrafficking operations ensure El Chapo’s offspring can afford every luxury, and they are not shy when it comes to showing it off.

Girlfriends: Some of the drug lords use the Instagram pictures to attract women

The social media posts have been commented on by young people desperate to join the cartels, or by women wanting to date its members.
Yet the trend of displaying their wealth has also caused offence to ordinary Mexican families who have suffered bereavement at the hands of organised crime in the lawless parts of the country where they live.

Fierce: Mexican families are worried the trend might be attracting young men who will die on the street

Mexican authorities are worried by the trend, concerned that such displays of wealth glamorise criminal activities when the reality is much bleaker for 99 per cent of the cartel’s employees.
"Kids come up here to the border thinking they’ll be like the narcos they see on TV,"said Mexican police commander Umberto Mata, who struggles daily with the cartels
"But all that happens is they end up dead. The rich narcos you see on Twitter are the spoiled kids of narco bosses, no one is forcing them to commit kidnappings, extortions or sell drugs on the street."