Mexican band Los Tigres del Norte banned in Chihuahua Published duration 13 March 2012

image caption Chihuahua officials said they had warned the band not to play narcocorridos

Authorities in Chihuahua in northern Mexico have banned the popular band Los Tigres del Norte from performing in the city after it played a song which officials said glorifies crime.

The city authorities had issued a ban on narcocorridos, songs praising drug trafficking, in all public spaces.

They said the Tigres del Norte broke that ban when they performed their song "Queen of the South".

The song recounts the exploits of a fictional female drug dealer.

Deputy Director of the Chihuahua Municipal Government Javier Torres Cardona said the group had performed the song at a local fair on Saturday in front of some 6,000 people.

Mr Torres Cardona said the municipal government had banned narcorridos from being performed in public in 2011.

"It's a total ban, and this group did not comply with the rules not to play songs which praise criminal activity," he said.

The authorities said the organisers of the concert would face a steep fine and the Tigres del Norte would not be allowed to play in the city again.

The group which performs norteno music, played some 30 songs at the concert, but the authorities said only La Reina del Sur (Queen of the South) violated the ban.

The song is about Teresa Mendoza, the character in a book by Spanish author Arturo Perez-Reverte.

The novel depicts the rise to power of Teresa from a young girl in Mexico to one of the most powerful drug dealers in Europe. It was also turned into a popular Spanish-language TV series.

The Tigres del Norte are one of the main proponents of the norteno genre of music, and have won six Latin Grammy Awards.