Beauty Pageant Director Shot Dead In Mexico (Photo)

The director of the Miss World beauty pageant in Mexico has been kidnapped and murdered in a targeted attack hours after he crowned a new provincial winner in the crime-plagued state of Sinaloa.

Authorities say the attack on Hugo Rubén Castellanos Jiménez, 39, took place in the state capital, Culiacan, after he had just presented Melissa Lizárraga the Miss Sinaloa crown.
'Yesterday, he crowned me. Today he's not here,' Lizarraga said in a Facebook post on the Miss Mexico page in remembrance of Castellanos.

Castellanos, who was well known as a former model himself and the owner of a famous modeling
agency, had left a party around 3.40am Sunday to grab dinner with friends at a restaurant downtown, local media reported. While on their way to dinner, their Jeep was stopped at a road checkpoint by two hooded men that were brandishing large guns.

'Get out,' the hooded men ordered Castellanos' friends, La Pared Noticias reported.

A Sinaloa state official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said they apparently let his companions go and then killed Castellanos.

His body was found Sunday in a stolen vehicle, along with cash and documents, in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan.

According to The Washington Post, there was a single bullet through his head.
The area is known for its drug trade and drug capos have been known to bribe or pressure pageants to award titles to their girlfriends.