By JOSH KUN

LOS ANGELES - In November an anonymous user uploaded a new song to YouTube by Los Tucanes de Tijuana, one of Mexico’s most popular bands. The song, “El Mas Bravo de los Bravos” (“The Most Vicious of the Vicious”), heralds the exploits of Raydel Rosalio Lopez Uriarte, better known as El Muletas, or Crutches, a suspected hit man and trafficker high up in the ranks of the Tijuana drug cartel who had become infamous for bloodbaths and beheadings .

“A very dangerous man who doesn’t fear the Devil,” Los Tucanes sing. “He executes, kidnaps and gets the payments.”

It was not the first time that Los Tucanes (the Toucans) paid tribute to Mr. Lopez in a narcocorrido. These songs are merely the current manifestation of a controversial, time-honored and immensely popular Mexican song form that in its current manifestation typically turns news accounts of drug trafficking and drug violence into bouncy accordion- and brass-accented ballads.

Their 2008 song “El Muletas” detailed a failed arrest attempt in which Mr. Lopez escaped 200 federal agents at a popular Tijuana restaurant. (Mr. Lopez was apprehended last month.)

Los Tucanes’ odes to Mr. Lopez and other drug kingpins led Tijuana’s secretary of public security, Julian Leyzaola, to order that the group be investigated by the Mexican attorney general’s office for suspected cartel connections. He then canceled a Tijuana concert by Los Tucanes that had already sold more than 10,000 tickets.

“They always ask us what cartel we are with, and we always say we’re with the cartel of the people,” said Mario Quintero, the lead singer and songwriter of Los Tucanes. “If we were connected to a cartel, we would be the only mafiosos in history to last more than three presidential administrations.”

The monitoring of Los Tucanes’ music is part of a wider effort by the Mexican government to crack down on narcocorridos. The songs are banned from Mexican radio, and in January the country’s ruling party drew up a congressional proposal to issue prison sentences of up to three years to artists who glorify traffickers in songs or films.

“It’s infantile,” Mr. Quintero said. “Prohibiting music and canceling concerts is not the answer. If the government would dedicate more time to education and to creating jobs, things would be better.”

In 2009 the band released two albums, “Propiedad Privada” and “Soy Todo Suyo,’’ the former dedicated entirely to narcocorridos and the latter - which was nominated for a 2009 Grammy for best norteno album - full of love songs and perky dance tracks like “El Chiqui Baby.” It’s a dual identity marketing strategy that Los Tucanes have been following since they formed in 1987, one that’s helped them sell more than 13 million albums worldwide .

While their safer material might get the Grammy nods, Mr. Quintero insisted that it’s the narcocorrido albums that keep Los Tucanes in business, generating about 80 percent of the band’s overall sales.

Back in the ‘90s Mr. Quintero wrote “No Solo de Traficante,” a rare narcocorrido about a man who chooses to not make a living from selling drugs. In 2002 he wrote “Que Tristeza,” one of the few corridos written about the ravages of drug addiction.

Neither song was very popular. “We have tried doing some songs about drugs and violence from a more critical perspective,” he said. “Nobody asks for them. So we don’t sing them - songs for peace, or songs about ending violence. It’s not what the people want to hear.”