The drug trafficker Édgar Valdez Villarreal, aka Barbie, has not obtained his freedom, nor is he a protected witness of the United States authorities, as has been speculated in the Mexican press this week, he assured in an interview with HIGH LEVEL Wilmer Parker, one of the lawyers who defended in the neighboring country the operator of the Sinaloa cartels and the Beltrán Leyva criminal clan.
“There is no reason to think that he has been released,” the defender said by telephone, he is simply no longer in the custody of the US Federal Bureau of Prisons (Federal Bureau of Prisons), but has instead been transferred to a correctional facility that is managed by another authority.
Valdez Villarreal, who has Mexican and American nationalities, has not obtained the status of protected witness either, since the date on which his sentence will end remains July 27, 2056.
The criminal was sentenced in the United States in 2018, after pleading guilty to trafficking cocaine to that country and carrying out operations with resources of illicit origin (money laundering).
La Barbie was arrested in Mexico in 2010, during the administration of President Felipe Calderón, whose government considered him one of the most dangerous drug traffickers in our country.
HIGH LEVEL He also consulted the Office of Public Affairs of the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons, which responded that this agency maintains its policy of not informing about the transfer and destination of prisoners who are no longer in its custody.
Litigator Wilmer Parker added that the process against Villarreal is completely concludedso there is no possibility that his sentence can be modified.
This Wednesday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reported in his morning conference that a consultation has already been carried out with the US authorities to inform him about the legal situation of Valdez Villarreal.
“Look at what is happening in the United States, it is strange with this Mr. Villarreal, that someone makes it known that he is no longer in the prisoner registry and we want to know where he is, and the query has been made and there is no precision about the subject, but we are going to continue asking that they inform us, ”said the president.
Asked if there are cases pending against Barbie in Mexico, the president said yes, although -for the moment- the issue is from the United States, where it is feasible for convicted criminals to negotiate benefits with that nation’s prosecutors.
“There have been cases where extraditions are even carried out, also with sentences of many years, and there they make arrangements and they no longer return, they are released,” lamented López Obrador.
In the opinion of the head of the federal Executive, Édgar Valdez Villarreal, “he does not have to leave (free), because the sentence is for many years, as long as there is an agreement, (…) if the agreement is reached, in any case, we would have to act, if there are complaints in Mexico”, he emphasized.
The Mexican president reiterated “that the United States government has to clarify it as soon as possible”.
La Barbie was extradited by Mexico to US territory in 2015, where he was charged with conspiracy to intent to distribute cocaine, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to the file of his criminal trial, which took place in a District Court in Atlanta, Georgia, Valdez Villarreal is responsible for distributing 12,000 kilos of cocaine in the United Stateswhich would have generated an income for the drug trafficker of 192 million dollars.
One of the prosecutors who participated in the accusation, Byung J. Pak, described Valdez Villarreal in 2018 as “a drug trafficker of the highest magnitude.”
In a document that was presented that year in the Court that sentenced him, it is detailed that Barbie “made her way to become a high-level enforcer and trafficker of the Sinaloa cartels and later of the Beltrán-Leyva cartels.”
Pak added that Valdez was “known for his flashy lifestyle,” in addition to the fact that he went on to make “millions of dollars selling thousands and thousands of kilograms of cocaine in the United States.”
In Mexico, Barbie was linked to the attack suffered in January 2010 by the then Paraguayan soccer player Salvador Cabañas, a player for América, who was shot in the head in a bar in Mexico City.
The main person responsible for these events, José Jorge Balderas Garza, known as JJ, is in prison in our country serving a 20-year prison sentence. According to the authorities in the Mexican capital, JJ was part of the drug trafficking network led by Edgar Valdez Villarreal.
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surya palaces Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal analysis and human rights. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.
