Extradition Update and Letter from La Barbie

Borderland Beat

Extradition Imminent

Edgar Valdez Villarreal was accused in U.S. – his native country- of drug trafficking since he was 20 years of age. Today, at his 39 years old, he has become in a sad drugwar legend.

After the Federal Police arrested him on August 30, 2010 in an operation troubled with irregularities and whose versions are contradictory and implausible, the government of Mexico expressed their intentions that Barbie would not remain long in the country. Within months, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted his extradition.

Barbie’s attorneys defended him by declaring that he was not the person that the U.S. government was seeking. In early 2012, the Second District Judge of Protections in Criminal Matters of Federal District (DF) resolved that the decision of the chancery met the requirements of law.

Sources that have access to the criminal file of the drug trafficker affirm that his extradition is imminent and it may be settled before the administration of Felipe Calderon ends. But it is said that extradition does not  concern La Barbie, even though to the majority of  drug traffickers, extradition is their worst night mare.

“Mike”

Proceso had access to the first criminal record filed against him in 1998 in the Federal Court of East Texas District, in the city of Laredo, where La Barbie is native. He was named Mike at the time, and his criminal potential was promising.

In that record, Valdez is accused of criminal involvement  since 1993, at the age of 20, when he worked for Adelmiro Ramirez, who controlled a transportation network and the distribution and selling of marijuana from Laredo to San Antonio, Texas, and from San Antonio, a  major US drug hub, on to Indiana, Missouri and Massachusetts.

That network had trafficked  between 1993 and 1998 at least one ton of marijuana until things began to get complicated. In 1996 his accomplices discover that “Miro” cooperated with the U.S. government in a federal investigation, so they orchestrated a plan to kidnap him.

The file makes it clear that the organization had informers in the service of the U.S. Government.

Because of those charges, Valdez Villarreal could have been sentenced to five years to life. But an arrest warrant against him was never issued. The criminal record remained sealed for over 10 years and in August 31, 2010, a day after the arrest of La Barbie, the prosecutor asked they be released because the suspect had just been arrested in Mexico.

 No Rush to Claim Valdez

A glaring fact is  that the Texas Court has not initiated a claim in Mexico for his extradition, instead the District Court of the Eastern District of Louisiana  requested it, where Valdez Villarreal has an open criminal file for minor charges, minor compared to what the Attorney General of the Republic in Mexico is charging him of.

In the case of Louisiana, Valdez is accused as well as Cesar Antonio Peña Giron and Gabriel Benavides, of distribution,  in that state, since 2001 of  more than five kilos of cocaine and has only two minor charges against him.

In 2003 his co-accused Peña Giron was sentenced by Judge Ivan Lemelle to 10 years in prison and five years on parole. However, since 2010 he enjoys complete freedom. In August of that year he was valet parking at a hotel in San Antonio, Texas, and thanks to a request from the prosecution of West Texas, where the case was transferred to fulfill his sentence; he is not on parole anymore because of good behavior.

The other co-accused, Benavides, ran with even better luck. He was sentenced to 70 months in prison and now enjoys total freedom. Since they are the same charges for La Barbie, it is predictable that he will have the same outcome.

Genaro Garcia Luna

Edgar Sends Letter

Edgar Valdez Villarreal, “La Barbie”  claims that top level officials of the Federal SSP, have been paid and included as part of the criminal organizational structure. 

In a letter delivered to Reforma, Valdez Villarreal,  who is accused of working for the Beltran Leyva cartel aka "BLO",  said that besides the Federal SSP receiving drug money, officials take confiscated goods from seizures.

The letter delivered by his attorney  accuses Genaro Garcia Luna, head of the SSP, of receiving  drug money since 2002, as well as  his top aides, and the Witness Protection Program.

-Spanish Text Translated to English*

 "First I would like to express that I was not eligible for the witness protection program. Likewise, I categorically deny the accusations and declarations that are related by the apprehending elements regarding my detention, and the the truth of the matter is as follows:

My detention was the result of a political persecution on the part of C. Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, who set up a harassment against my person for the reason that the undersigned [La Barbie] refused to be a part of the agreement that Mr. Calderon Hinojosa desired to have with all the organized crime groups for which he personally held numerous meetings in order to have talks with organized crime.

Subsequently, different meetings were carried out through General Mario Arturo Chaparro who met under the orders of the President and Juan Camilo Mouriño, with two of the bosses from La Familia Michoacana. Subsequently, the general had an interview in Matamoros with Heriberto Lazcano and Arturo Beltran Leyva, "El Barbas", and also with "El Chapo" Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.

-Continues on page two-


Calderon wanted the meeting with all the cartels: The Zetas, the Gulf Cartel, with me, the Juarez Cartel, with Vicente, Mayo and Chapo. A situation for which there was no answer on my part and I did not want to have connections with anyone form the criminal organizations [and] a quick persecution began against my person, to the degree of having my various homes searched without a legal warrant for it and during which they stole money, jewelry, cars and other belongings from me.

Genero Garcia Luna, head of the federal SSP, who from at least 2002, first in the AFI and then in the PFP, it was evident that he had received money from me, from drug trafficking and organized crime, the same that a select group made up of Armando Espinosa de Benito who was working with the DEA and passing me information, Luis Cardenas Palomino, Edgar Eusebio Millan Gomez, Fransisco Javier Garza Palacios (Colombian Federal Police), Igor Labastida Calderon, Facundo Rosas Rosas, Ramon Eduardo Pequeno Garcia, and Gerado Garay Cadena who also formed a group that took money from organized crime and from me.

Among others, they were charged with "stopping me in some operation" when in reality they had orders to kill me, so much so that at the moment of my arrest, which came out in the mass media, when they found me alone at home. They said that on that day there were no gunshots reported but the truth is that there was.

A federal cop who was the same that brought me to this place and who actually found me, urged me to run so that he could shoot me and that he could say that he repelled an attack an had killed me as they did with ARON ARTURO GINES BECERRIL who they killed in the vicinity of the Perisur Mall, and who had most of his bullet wounds in the back on the same day of my arrest. Everything was covered up by the Federal Police.

It is worth making mention that despite the background of Genero Garcia Luna, which are found in many criminal proceedings of which the American government already has knowledge, that even formed part of the themes touched upon in the Merida Initiative, and to which I already had access in the most recent testimony of the collaborating witness, "Mateo" (Sergio Villarreal); the President Felipe Calderon argues against the charges against [Genero Garcia Luna].


It is worth noting that the Federal Police, no matter how many detentions they conduct, they never seize anything, everything gets lost -e.g. money, jewelry, vehicles, drugs.- yet it should also be mentioned that the Mexican military and the Navy Secretariat are the most  honest, because when they detain someone, they turn them over to the corresponding authorities with whatever evidence they had at the time of their detention."

I might have done that which has been done, but they, the public servants that I have mentioned are also a part of the criminal structure of this country."

Signed,
 
EDGAR VALDEZ VILLARREAL

When Valdez' lawyer, Erandira Jocelyn Guerra,  was questioned of  reason for the delivery of the letter, she explained: "Simply complying with an instruction my client gave me,  he is  entitled to justice and clarifying  the facts.."

UPDATE:

Mexican Federal Police released a statement after Reforma newspaper published the letter from Valdez.

"Organized crime and its allies historically have tried to maintain themselves in impunity and avoid at all costs that the Mexican government pursues and captures them, "Spokesman Jose Ramon Salinas read from the federal police statement Wednesday. 

Federal police said Wednesday that Valdez is connected with many violent homicides and implied that he could be trying to avoid justice with his letter. "Organized crime and its allies historically have tried to maintain themselves in impunity and avoid at all costs that the Mexican government pursues and captures them,".

Mexico's Public Safety Secretariat also spoke out via the presidency email system to news agencies, “This drug trafficker  on multiple occasions has has sought to blackmail authorities to obtain privileges," he said. "Held in a federal maximum security prison, he has tried to get benefits during his stay, including threatening hunger strikes to pressure them."

"The objective of the story that the alleged drug-trafficker Valdez distributed through a newspaper is to inhibit the authorities from acting against criminal organizations, by publicly discrediting those who battle against them," the statement said.

The statement, which does not address the specific allegations in Valdez's letter, also said that the Federal Police has detained all of the leaders of Valdez's criminal organization, in addition to two Colombians who provided the group the alleged liaison with the Norte del Valle cartel in Colombia.

In a Wednesday broadcast speech, Calderon did not respond to Valdez’ claim, but the outgoing president has repeatedly and resolutely spoken out  against organized crime and corruption, in addition to any notion of cartel favoritism.  Notable, is the fact that cartels have not offered the same accusations against Calderon.

Charges against the Generals

After being detained in May, 2012, charges were brought in August of this year in a formal indictment against  Brig. Gen. Roberto Dawe Gonzalez, retired Lt. Col. Silvio Isidro de Jesus Hernandez Soto and retired Gen. Ricardo Escorcia Vargas and Tomas Angeles Dauahare (at left) -- a retired general and former deputy defense secretary

After the officials were detained, all three major political parties in Mexico called for a full investigation into reports that he and other officers paid to protect and provide information to BLO.

"If proven, the full weight of the law must be applied because they have been federal government officials and are responsible for combating organized crime, and if they are colluding with them the punishment should set an example," legislator Arturo Santana told state-run media.

One has to be mindful of the fact the letter of accusation was written by a criminal with a long history of crimes such murder, in addition to drug trafficking in both Mexico and the United States, his credibility is gutter low.  However, there is no doubt some truth in what he writes with respect to the Generals involved and others, enough so that formal charges were brought against them in a nation with a dismal judicial history. 

We now know some of the reasons behind the  bizarre Mona Lisa smile he could not get enough of when he was apprehended.

Extradiction article:Proceso-Translated by Chivis-
Letter from Reforma- * English Translation by Jthmover of BB Forum