Two high-ranking members of a drug cartel headed by a kingpin nicknamed “The Barbie” have received lengthy prison terms for bringing truckloads of cocaine into Atlanta.
Prosecutors said the two men worked for Edgar Valdez Villareal, who in Mexico is called “La Barbie,” a moniker he got growing up in Texas because his high school coach thought his fair skin, good looks and blue eyes made him resemble a Ken doll.
Valdez Villareal has been credited by law enforcement authorities as being the highest-level U.S. citizen in the ranks of Mexico’s drug cartel. He led an operation in the mid-2000s that shipped in hundreds of kilograms, using Atlanta as a regional cell before distributing the drugs across the country, First Assistant U.S. Attorney John Horn said Wednesday.
Valdez Villareal, who faces federal charges here, is in custody in Mexico, where extradition proceedings are pending.
On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Sally Yates said as Atlanta has grown in prominence as a national hub for the Mexican cartels, her office has focused on reaching beyond the drug traffickers to the drug lords and supervisors who manage the operations behind the scenes. “We will continue to work this case to hold the cartel leadership responsible,” she said.
One of Valdez Villareal’s top lieutenants, Ruben Dario Hernandez, 34, of San Antonio, Texas, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta to 22 years and four months in federal prison, Horn said. Hernandez managed the books and logistics for the drug operation.
Juan Ubaldo Montemayor, 49, of Mexico, was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in prison. Montemayor managed the account for one of the cartel’s primary customers, Horn said.
Both men previously pleaded guilty to federal charges and are among more than a dozen convicted in the operation.
Drug Enforcement Administration wiretaps showed that the Atlanta cell was receiving up to 300 kilograms at a time in tractor trailer trucks from the Texas border, Horn said. In turn, the trucks returned to Mexico laden with U.S. cash.
In August 2005, for example, DEA agents seized $2.5 million from a tractor trailer as it left Atlanta and, three months later, seized 110 kilograms of cocaine and another $1.5 million in cash from the cell’s stash house in southwest Atlanta, Horn said.
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