Mexican Instagram star El Pirata de Culiacan 'gunned down' after insulting cartel boss El Mencho

An Instagram star in Mexico known as 'El Pirata de Culiacan' was gunned down in a bar late on Monday night (18 December), according to local reports. The social media personality, whose real name is Juan Luis Lagunas Rosales, had reportedly been insulting a notorious cartel leader online in the weeks before his alleged assassination.

El Debate de Culiacan, a local newspaper, reported that Rosales was shot and killed in a bar called Mentados Cantaros in Tlajomulco. Fifteen shots are believed to have been fired in the incident with witnesses claiming the attack was targeted at Rosales.

The bar manager was also said to have been injured in the shooting and remains in a serious condition in hospital. El Debate reported witnesses saying the attack was carried out by five people who were travelling in a black truck.

Rosales was a popular character on social media, boasting almost 270,000 followers on his instagram account, 33,000 on twitter and over 1,000,000 on Facebook. His last post on Facebook appears to show him at an apartment with several friends.

His last post on Instagram appears to show him topless in a bathroom mirror with a tattoo on each forearm.

A report from El Diario differed slightly, saying that local police claimed there were four individuals, not five, who perpetrated the attack. The paper also reported that in a recent video Rosales was seen insulting the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación), known as 'El Mencho'.

El Mencho, the alias of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, is one of Mexico's most wanted men and had allegedly worked previously with the notorious Sinola Cartel and its now-incarcerated leader Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman.