Malverde was a robber who was hanged in this Pacific Coast city in 1909. Devotees say he robbed from rich politicians and gave to the poor during the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. His name was ideal as a mascot for marijuana growers: Mal verde means "green evil."

"When you're in a business where you're constantly at risk — from soldiers, from other traffickers, from your own bosses — you look for something external for strength," said Froylan Enciso, an expert on Mexican cartels at the State University of New York-Stony Brook. "For these people, it's Malverde."

He is one of many folk figures who have taken on religious tones.

In Tijuana, migrants pray to Juan Soldado, an executed rapist, for protection before crossing the border. In Chihuahua state, many people venerate the Santa de Cabora, a girl who was banished from Mexico for allegedly inciting an Indian uprising. One Roman Catholic sect in Michoacán state even regards John F. Kennedy as a saint.

The chapel in Culiacán was built in 1969 by González's father, farmer Eligio González, to thank Malverde for curing him after highway bandits shot him four times.

The original concrete shrine is now covered by a tin-roof building with windows of colored glass and a neon sign that says "Jesus Malverde Chapel." It sits in downtown Culiacán within sight of the Statehouse and a block away from a McDonald's.

The altar is full of flower arrangements sent by worshipers. The walls are covered with plaques, photographs and handwritten notes.

On a side altar, someone has put a newspaper clipping about recent drug killings and a note saying "Oh Malverde, protect me."

Malverde tends to be most popular among midlevel cartel members, Enciso said. Poorer drug peddlers gravitate toward the Grim Reaper, known here as Saint Death, and the kingpins have never been seen at the chapel, González said. "The spiritual life of drug traffickers is very complicated," he said.

Not all of the worshipers are in the drug trade, said González. Many are migrants hoping to cross illegally into the United States.

"A lot of times they'll come here to pray for safe passage. And then when they get across they'll send back some money, or donate a plaque or something," he said.