US

Faith, Drugs, and Human Sacrifice: A Mexican Folk Religion Has Texas Police Worried

REUTERS/Daniel Becerril - RTX27LSN

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Joshua Gill Religion Reporter
Font Size:

A Mexican folk religion involving human sacrifice and cartel activity has crossed the border into Texas, and its growing popularity has law enforcement worried.

Authorities in Central Texas have warned the public about the rise of a religion devoted to La Santa Muerte, translated as “Saint Death,” or “Holy Death.” La Santa Muerte is a saint popular among members of La Familia and the Knights Templar drug cartels and other violent criminals. Adherents worship La Santa Muerte, depicted as a robed skeleton carrying a scythe in one hand and a globe or scales in the other, with various forms of sacrifice, ranging from fruit, bones, and burning candles, to the ritual murder and butchering of humans.

“For U.S. law enforcement agencies, the rise of a criminalized and dark variant of Santa Muerte worship holds many negative implications,” said Dr. Robert J. Bunker, PhD in an FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. “Of greatest concern, the inspired and ritualistic killings associated with this cult could cross the border and take place in the United States.”

Those killings have crossed the border, according to Bunker’s report. Four homicides related to worship of La Santa Muerte have been documented in the U.S. since 2006, three of which were confirmed as ritual sacrifice. Since the publication of Bunker’s report, other instances of ritual sacrifice related to drug cartel activity have occurred, like the sacrifice of a teen girl in Texas at the hands of MS13 members, according to Dallas News.

The religion of La Santa Muerte has existed for half a century in Mexico and is still developing, attracting adherents not only from violent criminal elements but also from among the impoverished and uneducated.

“Over half of the prayers directed at her include petitions to harm other people via curses and death magic,” Bunker said. “Still, many Santa Muerte followers appear benign—typically poor, uneducated, and superstitious individuals who practice a form of unsanctioned saint worship mixed with varying elements of folk Catholicism.”

Leaders of the Catholic church in both the U.S. and Mexico have condemned worship of La Santa Muerte, and called it’s spiritual practices evil and dangerous in light of their connection to violence and their perversion of traditional Christian theology, according to an AP Report.

“She’s not a saint. There is nothing good that can come out of praying to her,” said Archbishop of NM John Wester. “We have a lot of saints who represent the teaching of Jesus Christ. This is an aberration.”

Bunker added that the evidence of increasing worship of La Santa Muerte in the Southwest U.S. suggested a “spiritual insurgency” component to the drug cartels’ activities. The killings aren’t just secular homicides meant to inspire terror — they are sincerely offered sacrifices, according to Bunker.

Law enforcement officials in Austin, TX, told KVUE ABC the religion of La Santa Muerte is alive and well in Austin and other areas of central Texas. Police have encountered shrines to the folk saint in the homes of suspected drug offenders, and have also seen worship increase among law abiding citizens who simply seek fortune from the La Santa Muerte. There have been no ritualized killings related to the religion in Austin, but the related spiritual practices Austin police witnessed have not always been benign. The names of a judge and a police officer were found on pieces of paper left at the altar of a shrine to the saint.

“Their hope is to actually have the officer or detective or what not — something bad happen to them and they might be able to go free from their cases,” an undercover police officer told KVUE.

Robert Almonte, a former narcotics detective of El Paso, TX, corroborated Austin law enforcement’s claim of an increase in worship of La Santa Muerte among criminals in Texas. Almonte warned law enforcement to increase awareness of the La Santa Muerte cult and to “use extra caution and keep your guard up.”

Follow Joshua on Twitter

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Tags : fbi texas
Joshua Gill

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel