Editor's note: Journalist Karl Penhaul spent several weeks tracking the gangs of the Mexican underworld, the corrupt officials who support them and the cops trying to halt the violence. This is the second of three exclusive reports. Part one looked at the violent rules gangs live by.

The faithful leave this "Holy Death" statue offerings including cigarettes and cocaine, visible in the nose.

CULIACAN, Mexico (CNN) -- A baseball cap dangles from a cement cross. The slogan on the hat reads "power, money, respect." On the brim there's the logo of the classic gangster movie "Scarface."

Etched on the gravestone, the words: "Jesus Guadalupe Parra. 12 December 1986 to 25 August 2008."

"Lupito," as friends and family knew him, went down in a hail of bullets before he reached 22. Authorities said he died alongside three others in a gunfight with a rival drug gang high in the Sierra Madre mountain  range that is the backbone of Mexico's Pacific coast state of Sinaloa.

A printed banner draped over his tomb offers a deeper insight. It shows a photo of him alongside a marijuana plantation and an AK-47 assault rifle fitted with a 100-round ammunition drum.

The drab grave of this cartel triggerman, at the Jardines de Humaya cemetery in state capital Culiacan, stands in stark contrast to the mausoleums of dead capos, or drug bosses. Those are elaborate two- and three-story constructions, some perhaps 25 feet high, made of bullet-proof glass, Italian marble and spiral iron staircases.

A bricklayer at work in the cemetery told me the fanciest cost between $75,000 and $150,000. He said grateful drug barons often pay for loyal hitmen to be buried here, the city's toniest graveyard. Like so many other people we've met over the last few weeks, he declined to give his name or speak on camera.

"I can't. El patron [the boss] would kill me," he said.

Days later I track down Lupito's cousin, Giovanni Garcia, on the phone. He's an undertaker and by coincidence he took the call that Lupito had been shot.

"My cousin loved that way of life," Garcia said briefly before turning down a recorded interview. "We can't talk. You must understand how things are around here these days. It's not a good time."

That Sunday, I linger at Lupito's graveside. Three young men show up. They look about the same age as the dead gunman, the same cropped-hair, one heavily scarred around his eye.

In the breeze they struggle to light a dozen foot-high candles. I introduce myself. A few grunts later and I can see this conversation is going nowhere fast.

"We couldn't make it to the burial. This is the first time we've come to pay our respects," one of them explained. He never offered his name.

Drug rivalries have been known to spill over at funerals so many mourners opt to stay away leaving only the closest relatives to bury their dead quietly and without public complaints.

I stick around hoping to meet more talkative mourners. My wait is cut short. A fourth man appears between the tombstones some 20 yards away, apparently having seen me. As he talks into a phone I hear him say: "Hey, take your chance. Go grab f**king baldy."

I look around. No other bald men in sight -- just me. Time to leave.

At Jardines de Humaya and across town at the 21 de Marzo cemetery, rows of recently dug graves are filled with the young foot soldiers of Mexico's drug war.

A crosscheck of their names in the obituary columns of the local newspaper reveal tales of men in their late teens and early 20s, gunned down in firefights, shot in cold blood on their doorsteps or killed in prison clashes.

Jesus Gaston earns around $40 for every three graves he digs. But he can see the lure of easy money in the drug trade is little more than a
What do the followers do to show tribute? What tributes are shown in the graveyard? At what age was Lupito killed? At what age was "Lupito," when he was killled?
light a dozen foot-high candles. "Holy Death" statue offerings including cigarettes and cocaine, before he reached 22. 22.
question: What do the followers do to show tribute?, answer: light a dozen foot-high candles. | question: What tributes are shown in the graveyard?, answer: "Holy Death" statue offerings including cigarettes and cocaine, | question: At what age was Lupito killed?, answer: before he reached 22. | question: At what age was "Lupito," when he was killled?, answer: 22.