“I am particularly concerned about those many persons who, seduced by the empty power of the world, praise illusions and embrace their macabre symbols to commercialize death in exchange for money,” the Pope said, referring to Santa Muerte. The Catholic Church has condemned Santa Muerte worship as “blasphemous and Satanic.” When Pope Francis visited Mexico for the first time in 2016, he condemned the cult, which is one of the fastest growing new “religious” movements in the world, according to the Catholic Herald. So-called narco saints, such as Santa Muerta, are rising in popularity - with estimates of up to 12 million devotees in Mexico and, now, parts of the US.

American law enforcement officials struggling under the recent wave of illegal migrant crossings are increasingly documenting altars to the macabre saint - and another, Jesus Malverde - in stash houses in US border communities where Mexican drug cartel members often hold migrants for ransom, Almonte said. The movement is growing, with estimates of up to 12 million devotees in Mexico and, now, parts of the US. “They believe that the saints will protect them no matter what they do - and that’s dangerous because it emboldens the traffickers who truly believe they can get away with murder and still go to heaven.” “The narcos and the gangs all believe in the power of prayer,” said Robert Almonte, a Texas-based security consultant and former deputy chief of the El Paso Police Department who specialized in narcotics. The saint is a favorite of Mexican and Central American drug traffickers who are known to leave the severed heads of their enemies at improvised shrines, featuring wax effigies and votive candles emblazoned with the skeletal image of the one also known as Holy Death.ĭressed in a flowing white robe and often wielding both a scythe and a globe, Santa Muerte - a cross between the Grim Reaper and the Virgin of Guadeloupe, Mexico’s patron saint - is just one of a rapidly growing religious movement of “narco saints,” worshiped by drug traffickers who pray to them for protection, riches and the silence necessary to mask their underworld dealings. Santa Muerte has a fondness for tequila, cigarettes, candy - and human blood. Mexican cartel smugglers nabbed with $1.2M worth of meth in NYC - then released thanks to lax bail laws: feds Meth seizures reach record high in NYC as cartels flood marketįugitive drug lord wanted in 1985 murder of DEA agent captured by Mexico FBI’s most wanted drug lord since El Chapo set up new cartel while on the run

Santa muerte prayer against enemies