Last Months of 'Barbie'

El Proceso magazine this week describes in detail the last months of Edgar Valdez Villareal, alias La Barbie, the former top hitman for the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO) who was captured last week by Mexican authorities just outside Mexico City. Barbie’s battles with Hector Beltran Leyva, alias El H, have left dozens of dead throughout the Acapulco – Cuernavaca corridor that was once the domain of Barbie’s boss, Arturo Beltran Leyva, alias El Jefe de Jefes. Mexican Navy personnel gunned down Arturo in December, and four days later, El Proceso says, fighting began between Barbie and El H, who has since taken to calling his organization the South Pacific Cartel. Cuernavaca, the article alleges, is now in Hector’s hands but Acapulco remains a battleground. “We’re waiting for you,” a recent note on assassinated members of the security forces read, an apparent message to Hector and his top assassin, Sergio Villareal Barragan, alias El Grande to stay away from Acapulco. Other traffickers have taken advantage of the power vacuum including Ismael Zambada, alias El Mayo, a top member of the Sinaloa Cartel, who has apparently formed an alliance with Familia Michoacana to take control of the Costa Grande of Guerrero.