Extradited From Mexico, Cartel Leader Gets Nearly 50 Years
ATLANTA (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — A judge in Atlanta on Monday sentenced a former Texas high school football player who rose through a bloody power struggle for control of a Mexican drug cartel to serve nearly 50 years in federal prison.
Edgar Valdez Villarreal, who was born and raised in Laredo and got the nickname "La Barbie" because of his light eyes and complexion, also was ordered to forfeit $192 million.
Valdez, 44, was accused of bringing trucks full of cocaine from Mexico to the eastern United States and shipping millions of dollars in cash back to Mexico.
He was arrested in Mexico in 2010 and was among 13 people extradited to the U.S. from Mexico in September 2015 to face charges. He pleaded guilty in January 2016 to charges of conspiring to import and distribute cocaine, and conspiring to launder money.
Valdez's father was a nightclub and bar owner, and they lived in a middle-class subdivision populated by border patrol agents, police officers and firefighters.
He became a street dealer as a teen when he was still a linebacker on the football team at Laredo United High School, and then climbed the ranks to become a high-ranking member of the Beltran Leyva gang during the era when the gang's leaders were associated with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and the Sinaloa Cartel, prosecutors have said.
He lived a flashy lifestyle, dressing in nice suits and going to clubs, and owning homes in the most expensive parts of Mexico City. But his luxurious life was threatened after Mexican marines killed its leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva, during a gun battle in Cuernavaca in December 2009.
Valdez and Beltran Leyva's brother, Hector, began a bloody fight for control that left dismembered and decapitated bodies in the streets and often hanging from bridges in Cuernavaca and Acapulco, along with threatening messages.
An elite U.S.-trained Mexican federal police squad acting on tips arrested Valdez and four others at a woody vacation home outside Mexico City in August 2010. At the time, then-Mexican President Felipe Calderon called Valdez "one of the most-wanted criminals in Mexico and abroad."
An alleged Valdez associate, Carlos Montemayor Gonzalez, was extradited along with him and also faces charges. He has pleaded not guilty, and his case is pending.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)