This Is The Expensive Gift That La Barbie Received From A Politician Close To AMLO.

Mica for cartelinsider.com

Edgar Valdéz Villarreal is among the names that appeared in front of DEA agents in the statements made by Roberto López Nájera, who identified himself as one of his lawyers, in 2008 and revealed the delivery of money from the Sinaloa Cartel to the first presidential campaign of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

According to an article signed by the award-winning Tim Golden in ProPublica, drug traffickers would have handed over millions of dollars to López Obrador’s presidential campaign when he faced Felipe Calderón in 2006.

However, the publication points out that “it did not conclusively determine whether López Obrador had approved the alleged donations from the traffickers, nor even if he knew about them.”

As part of the statements given by López Nájera to the DEA agents, it is revealed that Edgar Valdez Villarreal, also known as La Barbie, called him to a meeting in January 2006 in Nuevo Vallarta, Jalisco. This meeting was organized by Francisco León García, who at the time was a candidate for the Senate representing the same political party as López Obrador.

At this meeting, it was revealed that the investigation by US authorities was already well underway. It was also discovered that Francisco León had given a costly gift to La Barbie, supposedly as a sign of respect.

According to ProPublica’s investigation, it was a watch valued at 20 thousand dollars, from the brand Patel Philippe. This, it was said, was done with full knowledge on the part of Francisco León that Valdez Villarreal was a collector of high-end watches.

Under the alias of Jennifer, López Nájera was extensively interrogated by several Mexican prosecutors as part of the Mérida Initiative. However, it wasn’t until 2010, in an interview in San Diego, that La Barbie’s lawyer revealed that this drug trafficker had called for a meeting at a hotel in Nuevo Vallarta, Jalisco.

In the statement, it was mentioned that one of the organizers of this meeting was Francisco León García, who besides being a candidate for a seat in the Senate of the Republic for the party that represented López Obrador, was also a friend of Sergio Villarreal Barragán, a former police officer and lieutenant of La Barbie, known as “El Grande”.

Both Francisco Leon and a “businessman” who attended this meeting, assured that they were there with the approval of the then presidential candidate. As a proposal, it was said that as part of the campaign, a commitment would be made to place officials in the upcoming government who would somehow favor drug traffickers, in exchange for resources.

Even they would have been told that López Obrador would not appoint a prosecutor who the drug traffickers could consider “hostile to their interests”.

After that, the next step was for La Barbie to accept the deal and request that López Nájera, his lawyer and witness before the DEA, meet with campaign staff to organize the delivery of money in favor of López Obrador.

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Mica

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