DEL Records CEO Ángel del Villar Gets Four Years for Violating Kingpin Sanctions

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

José Ángel del Villar, Producer and CEO of the record label Del Entertainment, was sentenced in the United States to 4 years in prison for doing business with a Mexican concert promoter with ties to the CJNG.

Ángel del Villar, who was also singer Gerardo Ortiz's former manager, violated the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, for which he was also fined $2 million.

After the trial ended last March, which included Gerardo Ortiz's testimony about having been deceived by Del Villar, he was found guilty of doing business with Jesús Pérez Alvear's Gallística Diamante company. This was after the company and Alvear was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for facilitating money laundering for the CJNG and its financial arm, Los Cuinis.

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Owner of DEL Records, Ángel del Villar Found Guilty of Violating Kingpin Act with Sanctioned Music Promoter

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat
 

The CEO of a Latin music conglomerate and his talent agency were found guilty by a jury today of conspiring to violate the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act by conducting business with a recently slain Guadalajara-based concert promoter designated for money laundering for the CJNG cartel and Los Cuinis.

José Ángel Del Villar, 44, of Huntington Beach, California, the CEO of DEL Records and its related talent agency Del Entertainment Inc., was found guilty of 10 counts of violating the Kingpin Act and 1 count of Conspiracy to Transact in Property of Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers in Violation of the Kingpin Act.

Co-defendant Del Entertainment, as a corporate business entity, was also found guilty of all the same 11 counts.

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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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