A Mexican drug boss is behind Valeria Marquez’s murder live on TikTok. The 23-year-old beauty influencer was killed in May 2025 inside her beauty salon in Zapoan, in the Guadalajara metropolitan area.
The murder
The young woman was presenting her followers with beauty products from her salon in Zapopan, in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. Off-screen, a man is heard entering his shop. The hitman asks her: “Are you Vale?”, to make sure of her identity. The influencer responds and is killed with two gunshots, live on TikTok.
The investigations
Three months after the murder, prosecutors accused Ramon Angel Alvarez Ayala of ordering the assassination. Ayala is a senior member of the Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel, one of Mexico’s most violent criminal organizations. Known by the nickname “El R1”, he was arrested by special forces during a car chase. The son and the hitman, however, are at large.
Investigators claim that his son, Francisco Alvarez, who had had a relationship with the young influencer, had called his father to organize the murder. The boss allegedly instructed a hitman to enter Marquez’s salon posing as a courier.
During the live broadcast, the young woman had mentioned an episode that had made her anxious. According to the influencer, someone had shown up at the salon while she was away, leaving an “expensive gift” for her.