Thursday, September 2, 2010

Cribs: 'La Barbie' Edition

As we highlighted earlier, Edgar Valdez Villarreal, aka 'La Barbie', was arrested this week in Mexico, ending his run as one of the top capos in the business. This video (in Spanish) of Valdez speaking after his arrest shows La Barbie looking forlorn and dejected, a far cry from the high-flying lifestyle he led as a top drug boss in Mexico.

La Barbie was taken as the home pictured above - check out more pictures of the pad here. It wasn't exactly Pablo Escobar's famous "Hacienda Napolés," but with flat screens, Cartier and Gucci boxes, pool tables, and a decently stocked bar La Barbie certainly had a comfortable spot during his last free moments.

Even before his arrest, La Barbie couldn't exactly enjoy the huge profits from the reported ton of cocaine he sent into the US each month, as he was in a vicious struggle with Hector Beltrán Leyva for control of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel after the death last year of former boss Arturo Beltrán Leyva. The battle resulted in a grizzly internecine conflict that recently saw the headless bodies of four associates of La Barbie hung from a bridge in Cuernavaca with warning notes that the same fate awaited others who assisted him. A few months earlier one of his top 'enforces' was beheaded on camera in a grizzly assassination posted on the Blog del Narco.

Image Source: Huffington Post via AP
Online Sources: BBC Mundo, Huffington Post, BBC News, Reuters, Dallas Morning News, Yahoo! News, YouTube, Blog del Narco

No comments: