Cartel drug lord and hitman has gone missing from federal prison 

A drug lord and hitman known for recording torture sessions and decapitating enemies has gone missing from a federal prison in Florida, where he was serving a 49-year sentence, according to authorities. 

Mexican American cartel leader Edgar Valdez-Villareal suddenly disappeared from the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) website and is now being listed as “not in BOP custody,” despite having to serve 34 more years. 

“It’s very strange what is going on in the United States with Mr. Villareal, who is no longer registered among those in custody and we want to know where he is,” said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in a press conference. 

“There is no reason for him to leave prison because he was condemned to many years unless there was some kind of an agreement,” he added.

Édgar Valdez Villareal, mejor conocido como 'La Barbie', ya no se encuentra bajo la custodia de la Agencia Federal de Prisiones de los Estados Unidos. ¿Y dónde está?https://t.co/DEhtiT4X8z pic.twitter.com/Ldh3mFTIXT

— Joaquín López-Dóriga (@lopezdoriga) November 29, 2022

Valdez-Villareal, known as “La Barbie” for his fair complexion, was the leader of Los Negros, a subgroup of the Beltran Leyva cartel. Previously, he had also been a top lieutenant for the Sinaloa Cartel, run by notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman-Loera. 

Despite having bounties amounting to millions of dollars, La Barbie was able to elude authorities for years. However, in 2009, after the death of cartel leader Arturo Beltran-Leyva, La Barbie successfully grabbed control of the cartel. He became the only American citizen to have ever risen so high in the ranks of the Mexican cartels. 

For years, he controlled drug routes into Acapulco and the United States, according to reports. La Barbie was known to torture his enemies and videotape the act. He also recruited several police officers and rival cartel members as informants to eliminate his rivals, according to U.S. authorities. 

He was captured during a battle with Mexican authorities near Mexico City in 2010. He was indicted in the U.S. in 2010 and extradited five years later. He was sentenced to 49 years in prison and fined $192,000.

Experts believe La Barbie might have made a deal with federal authorities and was therefore removed from the federal prison database. 

“He could be providing information on high-ranking cartel members, but even if this were the case I can’t see him being released from custody,” said Robert Almonte, a security consultant and former deputy chief of the Texas Police Department in El Paso. “He’s very dangerous. He’s killed people and he’s extremely violent and still has these connections to the cartels.”