HomeNewsAnalysis'Barbie' Talks?
ANALYSIS

'Barbie' Talks?

BELTRAN LEYVA ORG / 31 OCT 2010 BY INSIGHT CRIME EN

Mexican authorities are making it seem as if Edgar Valdez Villareal, alias “La Barbie,” is cooperating with them following their recent capture of the drug lord. The police released a video, seen here on El Universal’s website where the former top level security guard for Arturo Beltran Leyva, who tried to start his own organization following the death of his boss in December 2009, talks about his meetings Mexico’s most wanted traffickers, including Joaquin Guzman, alias “El Chapo.”

In their own press conference, the police also gave hints that Barbie is giving up more information behind the scenes, including details about his history as the head of the Beltran Leyva’s security apparatus and how he moved bulk cash from the United States to Mexico in “trailer trucks.” Barbie also told the police he had properties in Colombia that he used as depots and staging areas for his cargos that passed through Panama on their way to Mexico and eventually the United States. The Mexican police say that the Beltran Leyva Organization gave Barbie control over the lucrative Acapulco route. Barbie’s future, however, may be in the United States where he is a citizen and is wanted for drug trafficking. Authorities were determining his Mexican status and may move to deport him if it’s found that he is not a Mexican citizen.

Meanwhile, Colombian authorities said they had detained eleven accomplices of Barbie in various cities in Colombia, several of them members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), according to La Cronica newspaper in Mexico. The paper, citing a police press release, said that Denis Alvarino Gomez, alias “El Negrito,” the head of the FARC’s 30th Front, was among the captured. The FARC allegedly moved cocaine from laboratories in the Choco region along the Pacific coast through Panama and Costa Rica where Barbie’s counterparts picked it up and moved it to the United States.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COLOMBIA / 22 DEC 2021

Welcome to InSight Crime’s Criminal  GameChangers 2021, where we highlight the most important trends in organized crime in the Americas over the course…

COCAINE / 18 MAY 2022

Early investigations indicate the CJNG is striking partnerships with drug rings in Guatemala that receive shipments of cocaine from Colombia…

COLOMBIA / 11 AUG 2022

Colombia's last remaining guerrilla group may be the linchpin to future negotiations the Colombian government is expected to enter into…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…