The Letter of La Barbie

By Buggs for Borderland Beat
Segment 3

In the last segment we touched a little on Alfredo Beltran Leyva El Mochomo and Sergio Enrique Villarreal Barragán El Grande, who were both extradited to the US. Both have a lot of knowledge about corruption with the Mexican government and could sink Genaro Garcia Luna during his trial if they chose to testify against him. It is believed that El Grande is possibly a protected witness and most likely will testify in the trial of Garcia Luna. Today we will talk about another high-level capo, La Barbie.

Edgar Valdez Villarreal La Barbie is a US citizen and was a high-ranking lieutenant of the once powerful criminal cartel, the Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO). Valdez was born and raised in Laredo, Texas and his nickname La Barbie was derived due to his white skin, blue eyes and facial features. La Barbie was the leader of the security detail of Arturo Beltran Leyva. 

La Barbie managed to corrupt high level officials of the government of former President Felipe Calderón who are accused of having links with the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltrán Leyva Organization. It was revealed through Mexican Journalist Anabel Hernandez that La Barbie was an informant for the DEA and the FBI in the United States while at the same time he was a participant in the corruption of Calderón. In essence, La Barbie was described in US court documents as a "two-sided coin with the same face."

He was a collaborator with officials of the Government of Felipe Calderón, who are alleged of providing confidential information to the Sinaloa Cartel and BLO. The information leaked to organize crime included the identities, photographs and locations of DEA agents who were working undercover in numerous parts of the Mexican territory, thus putting their lives at risk.

In 2009 the federal Mexican government of Felipe Calderon turned against the BLO and started to dismantle the organization. Mexican police raided his rental homes where they located grenades, automatic weapons and police uniforms. In June of 2010 La Barbie was indicted in a US court on charges of trafficking thousands of kilos of cocaine from Mexico into the US. It is believed he was trafficking about one ton of cocaine per month. 

On August 30, 2010, La Barbie was arrested by Mexican Federal Police near Mexico City. On September 30, 2015, he was extradited to the USA. In June of 2018 he was sentenced to 49 years in a US federal prison. In November of 2022 Borderland Beat was the first to report that La Barbie was no longer listed in federal prison custody. The website of the Federal Bureau of Prisons listed him as "not in BOP custody."

There was speculation that perhaps he was set free. I am certain that is not the case. La Barbie is most likely housed in an undisclosed facility and with full protection, as he will most likely play a central role in the trial against Garcia Luna. The US government has a vested interest in ensuring that nothing happens to their star witness.

Borderland Beat has known for years of the corruption between these cartels and the Mexican government, but not until his arrest by Mexican authorities, that he was ready to talk. In November of 2012, La Barbie wrote a letter.

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THE LETTER

Below is the full text of the letter delivered on November 27 2012 to Grupo Reforma (diarios El Norte, Reforma, Mural) and subsequently made public. The letter was also sent to Journalist Anabel Hernandez.

"I want to state, first, that I did not agree to take part in the protected witness program. Likewise, I categorically deny the accusations and statements made by the arresting governmental agencies regarding the manner in which my detention was carried out and that the truth of the facts is the following: 

My arrest was the result of a political persecution by (president) C. Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. Calderon initiated an attack against me, because I refused to form part of the agreement that Mr. Calderón Hinojosa wanted to have with all the organized crime groups. He personally held several meetings, to have talks with various groups of organized crime.

Subsequently, numerous meetings were held through General Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro, who met by order of the President and Juan Camilo Mouriño, with two of the leaders of the Familia Michoacana. Later, the general also met in Matamoros with Heriberto Lazcano El Lazca and Miguel Ángel Treviño El Z-40 (leaders of Los Zetas). Sometime later, Acosta Chaparro and Mouriño met with Arturo Beltrán Leyva, El Barbas, (leaders of the Belytran Leyva Organization) and also met with El Chapo Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.

Calderón wanted to forge agreements with all the cartels: Los Zetas cartel, the Gulf cartel, with me, the Juárez cartel, with Vicente, and Mayo and Chapo of the Sinaloa Cartel. Since he did not receive a response from me and because I did not want to have collaborations with any other criminal groups, Calderon initiated a directed persecution against me. He ordered several searches of my homes without a legal warrant. They stole money, jewelry, cars, as well as numerous other belongings.

Genaro García Luna, head of the Federal Public Security Secretariat (SSP) since at least 2002, first in the AFI and then in the PFP, received money from me in various occasions as a result of drug trafficking and having knowledge it was coming from organized crime. A select group that included Armando Espinosa de Benito, who was collaborating with the DEA and provided me sensitive information. Other government officials that received money from me were Luis Cárdenas Palomino, Edgar Eusebio Millán Gómez, Francisco Javier Garza Palacios (PF Colombia), Igor Labastida Calderón, Facundo Rosas Rosas, Ramón Eduardo Pequeño García and Gerardo Garay Cadena.

Among them, they claim that they were tasked in "arresting me in some operation," but in reality, they had the instructions to kill me. At the time of my arrest, which was carried out at my home as reported by the media, I was alone. They say that I was arrested without firing a single gunshot on that day, but the truth was that there was gunfire. A federal policeman who was the same one who took me in custody, urged me to run so that he could shoot me, and be able to claim that he was repelling an attack. They intended to kill me just like they did to Arón Arturo Gines Becerril. Gines Becerril was killed in the vicinity of the Perisur Shopping Center. He was shot nemrous times in the back on the same day I was arrested.

Everything was covered up by the PF. It is worth mentioning that despite the background of Genaro García Luna, who is looking at numerous criminal charges and of which the American government is already aware of, was directly involved. They even have knowledge of other issues that were talked about during the review of the Mérida Initiative. I already have access to the most recent testimony of the collaboration of protected witness Mateo (Sergio Villarreal) that is being held by President Felipe Calderón without criminal charges being brought against him (prior to his extradition).

It should be noted that in all the arrests made by the Federal Police, nothing is confiscated as evidence, everything is stolen (money, watches, vehicles, drugs, etc.). It is necessary to point out that both the Mexican Army and the Secretary of the Navy tend to be more honest. They detain who they are supposed to and make them available to the proper authorities. I could had easily done what they do, but they, the Mexican governmental public officials I mentioned, are also part of the criminal structure of this country."

Signed:
EDGAR VALDEZ VILLARREAL

Segment 1
Segmant 2

Sources: Grupo Reforma, Journalist Anabel Hernandez and US court documents.

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Genaro García Luna in Collusion with Organized Crime

 Buggs for Borderland Beat

Genaro García Luna (GGL), The Fall

Segment 1
Note: In lieu of the pending trial of Genaro García Luna (GGL), I want to share some observations and events related to GGL. Borderland Beat was already tracking the collusion of GGL starting around 2001 when GGL served in the newly created Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI) under Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada. Genaro García would go on to serve in the federal cabinet of President Felipe Calderón as Secretary of Public Security. 

Genaro García Luna is arrested on December 2019 in Dallas, TX

García Luna was arrested on December 9, 2019, by federal agents in Dallas, Texas, and he is presently pending trial in the Eastern District of New York to face charges of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. It is alleged that García Luna received multimillion-dollar bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for permitting the Sinaloa Cartel to operate with impunity in Mexico. "As alleged, for nearly two decades Garcia Luna betrayed those he was sworn to protect by accepting bribes from members of the Sinaloa Cartel to facilitate their crimes and empower their criminal enterprise,” stated Acting United States Attorney DuCharme. 

If convicted of the continuing criminal enterprise charge, Garcia Luna could face a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment and a maximum of life in prison.

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Genaro García Luna right hand man of Former President Felipe Calderón

Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa, a conservative Mexican politician served as the president of Mexico from December 2006 to November 2012. As a member of the National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional, PAN) for 30 years, he had made the issue of organize crime the central part of his campaign for president. When he took office in 2006, he wasted no time in taking on the Mexican cartels head on. He dismantled the Tijuana cartel on the border of California, the Cartel del Golfo in the Gulf Coast, La Familia Michioacana (this was personal, as Calderon was from Michoacan) in the Tierra Caliente region and almost decimated the very powerful Juarez cartel. Calderón had entrusted his right-hand man and personal friend, Genaro García Luna to accomplish this task. He had appointed García Luna as Secretary of Public Security in his cabinet. 

García Luna started by rebuilding the Federal Police Force that began operating in June 2009 under a New Police Model. Felipe Calderon beefed up the federal police and changed their role to strictly take on the cartels. They became a huge nationwide tactical unit, operating in hot spots around the country. Under President Vicente Fox, from 2000 to 2006, there were 11,989 federal police. Under President Felipe Calderon, the number of federal police officers was increase to 34,846. This was in addition to the Mexican military that also played a key role in taking on the cartels. 

Felipe Calderon used the federal police extensively to combat the Mexican cartels

Calderón kept García Luna very close in his circle of trusted politicians. García Luna was considered untouchable and was Calderón's favorite cabinet member.  Yes, Calderón managed to keep his campaign promise, he hit all the criminal cartels in Mexico hard, except for one.  There was a little secret that was starting to pop its ugly head. There were very credible rumors that García Luna was colluding with organized crime, specifically the Cártel del Pacífico under the very command of Ismael Zambada García, El Mayo. The group was mainly composed of the Beltrán-Leyva brothers that were based in the Mexican state of Morelos.

Garcia Luna and his collusion with organized crime

On October 19, 2008, Genaro García Luna (GGL) was travelling from Cuernavaca to Tepoztlán with an escort of 27 armed bodyguards. His escort was intercepted by approximately 10 armored Suburban vehicles carrying a large commando of heavily armed sicarios. García Luna ordered his bodyguards to stand down and comply with the directions given by the sicarios. The bodyguards were stripped of their weapons and were blindfolded. They were not just concerned for the dignitary they were supposed to protect, but for their own safety. Some of the bodyguards overheard one of the sicarios yell at García Luna, "This is the first and last warning, so that you know that we can reach you anytime we want, if you do not comply with the mutual agreement we forged." 

The day Arturo Beltran Leyva reminded GGL his role

It is said that the voice came from Arturo Beltran Leyva, a top lieutenant for the Cartel de Sinaloa (CDS). García Luna left with Beltran Leyva abandoning his escorts to their fate. The bodyguards did now know where García Luna went and what he did during those four long hours he was away meeting with Arturo Beltran Leyva. When García Luna returned, the sicarios returned the weapons to the bodyguards and they proceeded with the escort of García Luna. The bodyguards, who were professionally trained to protect dignitaries and high-level politicians, felt humiliated. They were not happy with how they were treated, while García Luna was complicit with the sicarios.

The bodyguards narrated the details of the event in a letter sent to the legislators of the Senate in order to exposed what they say was how dangerous it is to grant more power to the SSP (Secretaría de Seguridad Pública or Secretariat of Public Safety) under the control of GGL. A good portion of the high-level officials of the SSP were at the service of drug traffickers. According to the investigations carried out by the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for Specialized Investigation in Organized Crime (SIEDO), many of the officials closest to García Luna seem to be corrupted by drug traffickers. Under the watch of the Calderon administration, evidence started to emerge that the SSP was one of the institutions most infiltrated by the Sinaloa cartel and other criminal organizations.

The only interview of El Mayo by Proceso Magazine

In 2010 Zambada did an interview with Julio Scherer Garcia of Proceso Magazine. He criticized the government's effort to take him down, saying it was a little too late, if the goal was to hurt the drug trade. "The problem with the narco business is that it involves millions of dollars. How do you dominate that?" Zambada said. "As for the bosses, locked up, dead or extradited, their replacements are already standing by. The government's drug war," he said, "is already lost." 

Why lost? 

"The narcotics trade and everything that goes along with it," Zambada responded, "are inside the society, it is deeply rooted in corruption, it always has."

El Mayo is the last powerful boss of the old guard. All the others have either died or are in prison. There are not many pictures that have been made public of Mayo Zambada. El Mayo has managed to avoid capture by keeping a low profile and by corrupting the Mexican government at the highest level.

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On the next short  segment, I will cover how the arrest of one of the Beltran Leyva brothers, resulted in the betrayal of GGL and CDS, that would ultimately unleash a bloody war between each other and the downfall of the BLO (Beltran Leyva Organization).

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