Edgar Valdez-Villareal, Notorious Cartel Hitman Known for Decapitations, Disappears from US Prison
A notorious cartel leader and hitman, infamous for decapitating enemies, has vanished from a federal prison in Florida, where he was serving a 49-year sentence.
Edgar Valdez-Villareal, an American-Mexican cartel leader, has been mysteriously taken off the federal Bureau of Prisons website as of November. Despite his release date being stated as July 27, 2056, he is now listed as “not in BOP custody.”
49-year-old Valdez-Villareal, also known as “La Barbie,” was the head of Los Negros, an enforcement group of the Beltran Leyva cartel, which is one of Mexico’s most ruthless underworld groups. He was previously a top lieutenant for the Sinaloa Cartel, led by convicted drug dealer Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman-Loera.
Following the death of cartel leader Arturo Beltran-Leyva in December 2009, La Barbie initiated a brutal battle for control of the Beltran-Leyva cartel. As the leader of Los Negros, he engaged in torture, often recording it, and recruited police officers and rival cartel members as informants, according to Mexican news reports.
In August 2010, during a cartel war in Cuernavaca, four decapitated bodies were discovered hanging from a bridge with a warning that anyone helping La Barbie would suffer a similar fate.
He was eventually captured during a firefight with Mexican authorities at a rural home northwest of Mexico City in 2010. At the time of his arrest, he was the sole American citizen to have ever risen so high in the ranks of Mexico’s cartels.
La Barbie had relocated to Mexico in the 1990s after facing charges in the US related to marijuana trafficking, reports revealed. He swiftly became one of the most ruthless underworld enforcers in the drug trafficker battles that claimed hundreds of lives in Mexico.
Valdez-Villareal was indicted in the US in 2010 and extradited five years later, where he was found guilty of drug trafficking and money laundering.
The Mexican government raised the question of why he is no longer in BOP custody at the highest levels last week.
“It’s very unusual what is happening in the United States with Mr. Villareal, who is no longer recorded among those in custody and we want to know where he is,” stated President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in a press conference.
“There is no logical reason for him to have been released from prison because he was sentenced to many years, unless there was some form of agreement.”
Some experts on the Mexican cartels suggest that Valdez-Villareal may have struck a deal with federal authorities.
“He could be providing information on high-ranking cartel members, but even if this were the case, I can’t see him being released from custody,” remarked Robert Almonte, a security consultant and former deputy chief of the Texas Police Department in El Paso. “He’s extremely dangerous, has a history of violence, including murder, and still maintains connections to the cartels.”
A spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons declined to disclose the reason for Valdez-Villareal’s absence from federal custody but informed The Post that there could be several reasons for it. Inmates may be temporarily removed from the site due to court hearings, medical treatments, or unspecified “other reasons.”
“We do not provide specific information on the status of inmates who are not in the custody of the BOP for safety, security, or privacy reasons,” the spokesman informed The Post.
