The devil wore Ralph Lauren

The Guardian reports that cartel boss arrest photos are doing wonders for the sales of Polo in Mexico: 

The trend came to light in August 2010 with the capture of the capo Edgar Valdez Villarreal, aka La Barbie, who was brought before the press wearing an immovable smirk and one of the shirts in green. Jose Jorge Balderas Garza, known as El JJ and accused of shooting Paraguayan football star Salvador Cabañas in a nightclub, was detained four months later wearing the same model in blue.

La Barbie and El JJ were associated with the same schism of the Beltran Leyva cartel but at least six alleged members of other organisations have been arrested in the same garment this year. They include three Zetas, one from the Southern Pacific cartel and another from the Independent cartel of Acapulco.

Originals sell for about $150 (£90), but knock-off versions are doing a roaring trade on the streets at a tenth of that price. "The kids want to look like the bad guys," said Maria del Carmen Martinez, one Mexico City vendor.[…]

Last weekend, the governor of the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa said he was "enormously worried" about the number of young people wearing the shirts. "There are people who want to be like these false idols," he said, adding that he wished they would wear clothes with the images of traditional heroes such as Emiliano Zapata.

I’d be curious to know if Fidel Castro had a similar effect on the sales of Adidas tracksuits.