Drug Kingpin Arrested in Mexico
FOREMAN: This week, Mexico's federal police captured an accused drug kingpin described as one of the country's most powerful and ruthless cartel leaders. Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as La Barbie, because of his fair skin and eyes, is American born and was wanted on both sides of the border. He was a high school football star in his home town of Laredo, Texas. Now he's said to have organized the killings of hundreds of people. Fred Burton has been following Valdez's actions along the border. Burton is a former counterterrorism agent with the State Department and a vice president with Stratfor Global Intelligence. He joins us in Austin, Texas. Fred, were we know there is an awful lot of drug running that exists on both sides of the border. How rare is it, though, for an American-born citizen to be this highly placed in one of these cartels?</s>FRED BURTON, STATE DEPARTMENT FORMER COUNTERTERRORISM AGENT & VICE PRESIDENT, STRATFOR GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE: It's very rare. La Barbie has managed to make his way to the top of a ruthless cartel. And I think that he certainly has earned that right based on his known viciousness. He was operating as a hit man in Mexico as well as a security chief for Beltran Leyva.</s>FOREMAN: We have some video of his interrogation. I want to play that and get your reaction. If you can. Let's listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): What was the route that you operated?</s>EDGAR VALDEZ VILLARREAL, ACCUSED DRUG LORD (through translation): Panama to Mexico.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): How did you manage the money? How do you do it to move so much cash?</s>VALDEZ VILLARREAL (through translation): Well, cash would come to me from the United States.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): How do they send you the money?</s>VALDEZ VILLARREAL (through translation): In semi tractor trucks.</s>FOREMAN: Is this typical talk for these drug kingpins, Fred? Is this normally, with what he's talking about there, normal business?</s>BURTON: This is normal business. It's still very much a bulk cash business and, in essence, they ship the product north. It's a very efficient supply chain. and the bulk cash comes back south. And the money is just astronomical when you start looking at just the flow of cash into Mexico. In many ways, this is Mexico's economy.</s>FOREMAN: Do we have any idea, Fred, how this transformation happened with la Barbie? How did he go from being a high school football player in the United States to the person he is today?</s>BURTON: From looking at his past, it appears that, at age 19, he had his first brush with the law down in Laredo. And he was involved in a horrific car accident where he killed a middle school teacher and he wasn't indicted for that. And then, there was a series of minor arrests, possession of marijuana, drinking in public. And then he vanishes into Mexico where he surfaces as one of the security chiefs for the Beltran Leyva organization. and it's rumored that he was involved in several assassinations inside of Mexico as well as some of his cross-border activities.</s>FOREMAN: How did he happen to get caught, Fred?</s>BURTON: When you look at an individual like this, it's typically a dog-eat-dog business. Either an individual has ratted him off and led the Mexican authorities to his location, however, there's one theory that's running through the community that he, in fact, may have turned himself in or, in essence, set himself up. Because if you look at what happened to Beltran Leyva, there's no good outcome for most of these individuals. To be blunt, I'm surprised he was taken alive, without any shots that were fired.</s>FOREMAN: Fred Burton, thanks for joining us with this. I know there's going to be a lot more revelations, a lot more to this story. Thanks so much for your time. Coming up, the Vatican appears to be working behind the scenes to stop a stoning in Iran. Plus, it sounds like something out of a horror movie, at least a Steven Spielberg horror movie, massive bull sharks. There's one right there. Yes, the potentially man-eating type found swimming in the Potomac River. That story next.