A singer of narcocorrido ballads which glorify drug traffickers was killed with two others in a drive-by shooting in northwest Mexico, officials said Monday.

Attackers opened fire on Diego Rivas and five others in Culiacan, the capital of the drug-trafficking heartland state of Sinaloa, early Sunday, according to the Public Security Ministry. Three people were also wounded.

Rivas had a hit song which lauded Mexico's billionaire fugitive drug boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

He was the latest fatality within the risky profession, as drug violence has risen under a military crackdown on organized crime.

Fabian Ortegon, "The Falcon of the North" who also sang about Guzman, was killed in the northern state of Chihuahua in October last year.

Another singer, Sergio Vega, was shot dead on a street in Sinaloa in June 2010.

Last May the government in the home state of Guzman's Sinaloa cartel banned the popular drug ballads in places serving alcohol, but they still ring out from radio stations and in music videos.