Livestreamer's murder raises questions over relations between Mexico's creators and cartels

The killing of a young influencer, caught on camera as he was livestreaming in Mexico's Sinaloa state, has raised questions about possible links between content creators and criminal cartels in this violence-wracked part of the country.

On the stream, two men on a motorbike can be seen riding up to César Gastélum, who is chatting to two friends outside a fast food restaurant in the city of Culiacán.

The murder happens within seconds: the driver of the bike shoots him in the head at close range before fleeing.

While the Sinaloa state prosecutor's office provided little detail about the incident, it did say that its lines of investigations included a number of posts Gastélum had published, "some of which refer to a criminal group".

Gastélum is not the first influencer to be murdered in Sinaloa.

At least 10 content creators have been killed in the state since a deadly war broke out between two rival factions of the Sinaloa criminal cartel two years ago.

Officials say Gastélum had not received any threats from criminal groups, nor was he under investigation by police for any alleged criminal links, as had been the case with some of the influencers targeted in the past.

But according to Claudia Arruñada, a communications expert at Mexico's Iberoamerican University, the worlds of social media and the criminal underworld can sometimes become intertwined - with at times deadly consequences.