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Mexican drug kingpin La Barbie arrested
One of Mexico's most wanted men, an alleged ruthless hitman and drug kingpin known as "La Barbie," has been captured.
By Nick Allen
Published: 6:19PM BST 31 Aug 2010
La Barbie Captured: Edgar Valdez Villarreal Capturado – Mexican Police have made a breakthrough today in their battle with drug cartels, with the arrest of suspected drug trafficker, Edgar Valdez Villareal, who is also know as “El Barbie” for his blonde hair and white complexion.
Edgar Valdez Villarreal, 37, who was born in the United States and grew up in a middle class home in Texas, got his improbable nickname because his blue eyes and fair complexion were said to make him resemble a Ken doll. Villarreal grinned as he was paraded for the Mexican media in handcuffs wearing a green polo shirt emblazoned with the word "London".
He had been an outstanding American football player in high school before allegedly starting to sell marijuana and developing a taste for luxury cars, nightclubs and Versace clothes. According to authorities he then moved to Mexico where he quickly became a key player in the country's drug war, unleashing a wave of brutal murders near Mexico City.
He grew close to the country's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, but later split with him to join the powerful Beltran Leyva cartel, which is accused of bringing Colombian cocaine into Acapulco and then smuggling it to the US. The US State Department said Villarreal headed a gang of assassins for the cartel and was "the person most responsible for pushing the battle into central and southern Mexico".
Mexican Federal Police Commissioner Facundo Rosas said he was responsible for "dozens" of deaths. A $2 million (£1.2 million) reward had been offered for his capture by Mexico, and the US had offered a similar amount. In May the US charged him with distributing thousands of pounds of cocaine from Mexico to the eastern US between 2004 and 2006. In 2005 Villarreal appeared in a video on the internet personally interrogating four hit men from a rival gang, the Zetas.
In a letter to a Mexican newspaper he justified killing his opponents, saying: "I don't pretend to be as pure as a dove, nor clean up my image, but I am sure of what I have done." In recent months he had been battling for control of the Beltran Leyva cartel after its leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed by Mexican armed forces in December. Villareal's rival for the role was Arturo's brother Hector.
Four of Villarreal's men were recently found decapitated and hanging from a bridge with a placard warning others not to support him. The battle for control of the cartel had led to a series of gun battles in the holiday resort of Acapulco. Last week 14 bodies were found there bearing messages to rival cartels. Security forces had been closing in on Villarreal for over a year. He was found hiding at a leafy weekend getaway spot just outside Mexico City.
One of his lieutenants was killed during a shoot-out with police outside a shopping mall in the Mexican capital. The capture was a major coup for President Felipe Calderon who deployed thousands of federal police and soldiers to fight drug traffickers in 2006. Drug gang violence has surged since the offensive began, claiming 28,000 lives, but it has brought down several major traffickers.
