Jesus Malverde

HOUSTON — Jesús Malverde has been revered for almost a century in northwestern Mexico. According to folklore, he was a Mexican Robin Hood who took from the rich and gave to the poor until he was killed by the police in 1909.

Now, immigrants have brought his legend to the United States. His image, which is thought to offer protection from the law, can be found on items that include T-shirts and household cleaners.

Malverde is widely considered the patron saint of drug dealers, say law enforcement officials and experts on Mexican culture. A shrine has been erected atop his grave in the remote city of Culiacán in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, which has long been associated with opium and marijuana trafficking.

“The drug guys go to the shrine and ask for assistance and come back in big cars and with stacks of money to give thanks,” said James H. Creechan, a Canadian sociologist and adjunct professor at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa in Culiacán.

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His image, which looks suspiciously like that of Pedro Infante, the Mexican matinee idol of the 1940s, appears on T-shirts and patches sewn on jackets and backpacks. Busts of Malverde can be seen next to cash registers at restaurants, bars and discos.

Manuel Simental, a Sinaloan immigrant, has an altar to Malverde in his restaurant, El Paisa, in Lynwood, Calif. It brings him good luck, Mr. Simental said. His customers leave dollar bills and loose change on the altar, which he said he collects and distributes among the poor when he visits Mexico.

Five years ago, Indio Products, a manufacturer in the Los Angeles area that distributes mystical products, did not carry any Malverde merchandise. Today, it has a full line of Malverde items including candles, rosaries, trading cards, stamps, hair oils and bathroom cleaners. The company’s president, Martin Mayer, said Malverde’s popularity was spreading.

“I just shipped an order of Malverde busts to Italy last week,” Mr. Mayer said. “I joked that they were probably going to the Mafia.”

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Last month, Cervecería Minerva, a Mexican microbrewery in the central-western state of Jalisco, introduced a beer called Malverde. Company officials said they chose Malverde’s name and image for its label because he was the most recognizable and admired figure in focus groups.

“Drug smugglers drink it like holy water,” Sergeant Garcia said.

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