Mx Goverment puts Arturo Beltran Leyva's 2009 "Posada" House on the market

Chivis Martínez for Borderland Beat

"Party House"
The Mexican government Treasury department, has placed for sale one of the seized properties belonging to the late Sinaloa capo Arturo Beltran Leyva, aka "El Barbas' or 'Jefe de Jefes".

The property has some notoriety, because in December 2009, the house was used for  a lavish "posada" (Christmas party) that ended abruptly due to  the arrival of an operation by the Mexican Navy.  The navy operation was to capture the Capo, but he managed to escape.

At the home  was singer Ray Ayala, politicians, various guests, 40 prostitutes and 11 party organizers.

"El Barbas", escaped arrest. along with Edgar Valdez Villarreal aka "La Barbie and Sergio Villarreal, "El Grande".  La Barbie was one of his most trusted men and was chief of sicarios.

He escaped, after a violent pursuit on the road from Cuernavaca to Acapulco, where his safety shield was led by at least 12  ex-military,  using  assault rifles, a grenade launchers and thousands of rounds to leave a trail of wrecked vehicles and resulted in the death of two federal agents.

SCHP determined that the federation should receive for the property at least  13 million 989 thousand pesos or roughly 1,070,360 USD.  The  property is over 5 thousand 500 square meters, of which  are mostly gardens and open spaces and only 892 square meters in construction.

Note that the price is a starting price for auction type sale.  Prices in the area are 2-75 million USD.

The property's address is  124 del Fraccionamiento Paseo de las Mandarinas, in the subdivision of  Los Limoneros in the town of  poblado de Ahucatepec, located in  upscale Cuernavaca.

Six Days Later
Six days after the party, on December 16th, Beltran Leyva was killed in a confrontation with the Navy in the Altitude complex near the center of Cuernavaca.

 It was around  3 pm  a meal was being prepared in apartment number 201, one of the five residential towers called Altitude, located in the Lomas de la Selva, in Cuernavaca, Morelos, where el capo Marcos Arturo Beltran Leyva lived.

He was having a meeting with La Barbie, discussing details to receive a special dinner guest.  It was General Leopoldo Díaz Pérez, head of the Military Zone 24, headquartered in the capital Morelos.

Government forces move in
From noon until shortly before 5 pm on Wednesday 16, more than 100 commandos of the Navy of Mexico began surveillance of the facility and quietly started to evacuate the occupants of the apartments.

The marines began their operation equipped with heavy artillery, tanks and armored vehicles, including helicopters hovering overhead. All this movement occurred between 1 am and 4 pm and before the actual entry into the facility of Altitude.

When Beltran Leyva's  first security wall had been defeated, and  the marines felt they had the situation under their control, and made their advance in towards the condo.  The members of the Special Forces were greeted with gunfire. This generated a massive gunfight. From their armored vehicles, the Marines triggered 7.62 caliber machine guns and assault rifles AR-15, while another elite military commando from the helicopter rappelled down on top of the condominium where Arturo Beltran was located.

At the second wall of security, Beltran Leyva's group of sicarios responded with dozens of fragmentation grenades and bursts of AK-47 and AR-15 fire power through the windows of department 201, located on the second level of the 15-story building

Five  hours passed, from the first advance, up to the point of the shooting that took the life of Arturo Beltran, and the sicarios were running out of grenades. No longer capable of an offensive, three of the five sicarios who were defending Beltran were shot dead in the condo. Another sicario jumped to his death.

La Barbie managed to escape, how, remains a mystery.

Decapitated Head 

Within  weeks of Belran Leyva's burial, a decapitated head was discovered on the front step of his elaborate tomb.

It was left without a message.  At another tomb the headless body was left.  The two tombs were at least 150 feet from one another.

The corpse was that of a food worker and why his head was left at the dead capo's tomb also remains a mystery.


Property for sale

The sale property is not currently accessible to the public, and  administrators have installed three guard houses to prevent onlookers from entering the street where the house sits.   .

The SAEB placed the property on sale,  as well as two other properties seized by the Attorney General's Office  (PGR)  that were offered for sale through Banrural and Fiderca, in Morelos.

Below is at the party house

and  below are videos of the shootout that ended his life