Singer Gerardo Ortiz Pleads Guilty, Cooperated with FBI In Trial Against Del Records Owner

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

American-born narcocorrido singer César 'Gerardo Ortiz' Medina pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. Ortiz 's performance at the Palenque de la Feria de Puebla 2025 was canceled hours after news of his guilty plea broke.

Ortiz, 35, of Pasadena, California, acknowledged that he sang in about six concerts organized in Mexico by Ángel del Villar, his former manager and a music promoter sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 2018 for allegedly laundering money for the CJNG.

“Gerardo Ortiz is a California musician whose career reached its peak performing corridos glorifying drug traffickers. He has sung, especially, for leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, including Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán [Loera], Ignacio 'Nacho' Coronel [Villarreal], and Dámaso López Serrano 'El Mini Lic,'” Univisión recalled.

“Gerardo Ortiz has himself pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transact [with] a specially designated narcotics trafficker, one of the crimes the defendants in this trial are charged with,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Schwab revealed Tuesday.

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"El Cuini" Transferred From Santa Martha, Mexico City To El Altiplano State Of Mexico Maximum Security Prison

 "Char" for Borderland Beat 

This article was translated and reposted from RIODOCE 

SEPTEMBER 8, 2024

Abigael González Valencia, alias El Cuini, leader of the criminal group Los Cuinis, partners and administrators of the economic resources of the Jalisco Cartel - New Generation (CJNG), was transferred from the Santa Martha Acatitla Social Rehabilitation Center for Men in the Iztapalapa district of Mexico City to the Federal Center for Social Rehabilitation (CEFERESO), No. 1, El Altiplano, in Almoloya de Juárez, State of Mexico.

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The financial brain of the CJNG

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Reforma article

Subject Matter: Jose Maria Gonzalez Valencia, El Chema, Los Cuinis
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

These are the antecedents of Jose Maria Gonzalez Valencia, "El Chema", chief  financier of Los Cuinis, a criminal group linked to the CJNG.

Reporter: Reforma
Who is El Chema?
Officials have informed that Jose Maria, alias "El Chema", converted into the chief of Los Cuinis after the detention of his brother Abigael Gonzalez Valencia in 2015. At the moment of his capture in Fortaleza, Brazil, on 27th of December, "El Chema was using the alias Jafett Arias Becerra, and he is considered the financial brain of the CJNG. (Otis: his arrest was reported by our very own Chivis, see link)

"El Chema", is also known as "Chepa", has been considered for some years as a priority objective by both the Mexican and United States authorities, he allegedly has been involved in cocaine trafficking operations, as well as in the importation of precursor chemicals for more than a decade.

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