“Socalj” for Borderland Beat
Edgar Valdez-Villarreal, better known as “La Barbie” the Mexican-American drug lord, was extradited to the US on September 30, 2015. He was being housed at a maximum security federal prison following a 2018 49-year sentence and a $192 million forfeiture on a drug trafficking and money laundering case out of Atlanta. He was serving his term in federal prison in Florida at maximum security USP Coleman 2. The United USP Coleman 1 and USP Coleman 2 prisons have housed several other well-known figures, including serial killers, mobsters including “Whitey” Bulger, Mafia cop Steve Caracappa, other cartel leaders including Benjamin Arellano Felix, and terrorists. He was initially set to be released on July 3, 2058.
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| USP Coleman is known as a “safe” special needs institution for inmates that might be at risk of violence if placed onto regular yards including informants, gang dropouts, former cops, and other vulnerable or well-known inmates. |
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His BOP status shows Not in BOP Custody, followed by an updated release date.
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Why is La Barbie No Longer in BOP Custody?
Damaso Lopez Nunez, better known as “El Licenciado” was sentenced by a US judge to serve a life sentence in prison in 2018. In February 2021 however, El Licenciado’s listed expected release date changed to August 11, 2032. It was widely speculated that this sentence reduction was due to key information that an “anonymous” “cooperating witness number 1” provided to US prosecutors that helped prove Emma Coronel was actively involved in aiding the business of her husband, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, alias “El Chapo”. In October 2021, as reported by Borderland Beat, Damaso was no longer listed in the BOP registry and it is possible he has been released into the custody of US Marshals in order to enter into WITSEC.
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| Edgar Valdez-Villareal was better known as “La Barbie” for his American heritage and blonde hair. |
“La Barbie” Cooperated with US Authorities Prior to His Arrest
Valdez enjoyed a flashy lifestyle and cultivated an image in the media to impress the public and intimidate his rivals, prosecutor Elizabeth Hathaway said in court. He wore nice suits and owned luxury homes, including a ranch with a zoo that housed a lion. But he was always extremely violent during his time in Mexico. His security team captured a member of the rival Los Zetas who had been sent to assassinate Valdez during their turf war. A video shows Valdez and others interrogating the man and then shows him being shot in the head, prosecutors said. Valdez had the video sent to news outlets and even to law enforcement in the US.
After Mexican marines killed Arturo Beltran Leyva in December 2009, Valdez and Beltran Leyva’s brother, Hector, began a bloody fight for control that left dismembered and decapitated bodies in the streets and often hanging from bridges in Cuernavaca and Acapulco.
Defense attorney Buddy Parker stressed that his client cooperated with US law enforcement agents even before his 2010 arrest, putting his own life in jeopardy. Valdez considered surrendering to law enforcement but feared it would seriously endanger his family. Parker asked the judge to stick to the low end of the sentencing guidelines and give his client 30 years.
Duffey was skeptical, noting that even as he communicated with law enforcement, Valdez was arranging for regular shipments of cocaine into the United States. Hathaway seized on that skepticism when asking the judge to impose a 55-year sentence. By providing information to US authorities, she said, Valdez was “structuring a situation where his competitors were being taken out by law enforcement.” She acknowledged that Valdez has cooperated and saved the government money and effort by quickly pleading guilty, but she argued that a harsh sentence was needed to send a message to other traffickers.
Valdez told the judge he accepted responsibility for his wrongdoing and apologized to his family. He said he’d like for his life to serving as an example to young people about the dangers of getting mixed up in drugs. “I’m not a bad person,” Valdez told the judge. “I am a good person who has made bad decisions.” Duffey wasn’t swayed, telling Valdez that his actions were despicable and amounted to a betrayal of his family and his country. He said he didn’t get a real sense of remorse from Valdez for flooding American communities with drugs. At his sentencing hearing, one of his six sisters and his brother pleaded with the judge for leniency. His parents, other siblings, and nieces and nephews packed the courtroom.
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What’s more, La Barbie allegedly witnessed corrupt officials from the administration of former President Felipe Calderón, according to the report, providing cartels with identities, photographs, and locations of undercover DEA agents in Mexico. One of La Barbie’s most important contributions, according to the report, was passing along a tip that allowed Mexican marines to locate and kill his former boss, Arturo Beltrán Leyva, in 2009.
“If the DEA was getting this type of information from La Barbie, I’m surprised their operation wasn’t blown up sooner,” Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown told InSight Crime. “This level of egregiousness and risk to DEA operations would be shocking,” she added.
La Barbie was no run-of-the-mill criminal player. To get 50 years for being such an important asset would be a terrible plea bargain, according to Felbab-Brown. “There’s a clear mismatch between the length of the sentence and what information he supposedly provided,” she explained. La Barbie is expected to be a key cooperating witness in the trial of Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former top security official from 2006 to 2012, who US authorities arrested in December 2019 on drug charges and taking millions in bribes from traffickers.
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| Genaro Garcia Luna’s US trial begins in 2023, and as Valdez-Villareal has accused Luna of corruption in the past; he is a potential witness. |
Garcia Luna Case
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| Milenio obtained a copy of the DOJ letter sent to lawyer César de Castro in which prosecutors said they have “records related to the shipment of narcotics into the United States through shell companies.” |
Prosecutors also handed over attorney De Castro, with the markings “protected material” and “only for the lawyer’s eyes,” the list of 4 possible witnesses for the prosecution against García Luna.
In the document, it is kept classified who was the third person through which La Barbie communicated with the US government, to protect their life. And information about the public officials involved is also kept classified.
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| A transcript of the letter from Valdez Villarreal. |
“La Barbie’s” Letter
In November 2012, La Barbie provided a letter, signed by him, in which he claims to have delivered million-dollar bribes to Genaro García Luna, and his large group of corrupt police officers headed by Luis Cárdenas Palomino, Facundo Rosas Rosas, Armando Espinosa de Benito, Eduardo Ramón Pequeño, Edgar Eusebio Millán, Francisco Javier Garza Palacios and Gerardo Garay Cadena. And having witnessed the payments they received from other drug lords. Valdez Villarreal states that President Felipe Calderón himself led meetings with drug traffickers. Information that he surely shared with the DEA and FBI at that time.
He also assured that his arrest was due to his refusal to make an agreement with President Felipe Calderón and the other criminal organizations. La Barbie knew that the American government was aware of the corruption of García Luna and his team because he himself would have revealed it as an informant.
“My arrest was the result of a political persecution by C. Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, who instituted a harassment (sic) against me for the reason that the undersigned refused to be part of the agreement that Mr. Calderón Hinojosa he wanted to have with all the organized crime groups, for which he personally held several meetings to have talks with organized crime groups,” he said.
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| Garcia Luna and then President Felipe Calderón. |
Sinaloa Cartel’s Presidential Connections
President Felipe Calderón stated that his government does not protect or shield or tolerate any group of drug traffickers, whatever their names are. He said that the accusations that his administration has not acted against the cartel headed by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán are totally unfounded and false and are made only out of ignorance. Last week criticism of the federal government arose for its fight against drug trafficking because Manuel Clouthier, a Sinaloan deputy for the PAN, criticized that the fight against organized crime had not touched the Sinaloa cartel, headed by “El Chapo.”
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| Carlos Montemayor, who is La Barbie’s father-in-law, was extradited as well in the same case. He was sentenced to 34 years in federal prison. |
La Barbie’s Father-In-Law is Still in Custody
In February 2011, he was extradited to the United States to face trial at the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Montemayor built a trucking company that he used to smuggle cocaine for the cartel. He took over the drug cartel and the “La Barbie” criminal organization after Valdez Villarreal was taken into custody. Montemayor González, originally from Nuevo Laredo, used the surname of García Treviño to pose as a businessman and promoter of events for Charros in Huixquilucan in the state of Mexico.
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| “La Barbie” married his colleague’s daughter. |
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| Villareal’s father-in-law, Carlos Montemayor Gonzalez, sentenced to 34 years in prison is shown as being at Williamsburg penitentiary. |
“Montemayor came to the United States from Mexico and used his skills, hard work, and the opportunities afforded in this country to build a successful trucking company from the ground up,” said U.S. Attorney Byung Pak.
“However, he was ultimately driven by greed and partnered with Edgar Valdez-Villareal to convert his trucking company into a transportation arm for the Sinaloa and Beltran-Leyva cartels, shipping tons of cocaine and drug money across the United States,” Montemayor informed the district court that he wanted to enter a non-negotiated guilty plea to all six counts he was charged with committing. In 2019, he was sentenced to 34 years in prison and was ordered to forfeiture of $192 million dollars, the same amount as La Barbie.
Montemayor’s notice of appeal was filed before the district court determined how much money he would be required to forfeit. Although his premature notice of appeal became effective to appeal the final judgment and conviction when those were later entered, it could not become effective to appeal the forfeiture order because the district court determined the forfeiture amount separately. Accordingly, the court affirmed the convictions and granted the government’s partial motion to dismiss.
He is currently listed as in custody at Williamsburg Federal Correctional Institute in South Carolina.