{"id":6534,"date":"2010-09-01T07:54:58","date_gmt":"2010-09-01T12:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johntedesco.net\/blog\/2010\/08\/31\/"},"modified":"2024-12-26T14:08:24","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T19:08:24","slug":"mexican-authorities-arrest-la-barbie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johntedesco.net\/blog\/2010\/09\/01\/mexican-authorities-arrest-la-barbie\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican authorities arrest &#8220;La Barbie&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In January, Express-News Reporter Jason Buch <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20100127214826\/http:\/\/www.mysanantonio.com\/news\/mexico\/82535092.html\">profiled<\/a> Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a U.S. citizen from Laredo who had risen through the ranks of a Mexican drug cartel. In high school, Valdez Villarreal was a jock who got the nickname &#8220;Barbie&#8221; for his light-colored eyes and hair. Years later in Mexico, he was poised to become a ruthless drug boss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/johntedesco.net\/blog\/2010\/05\/20\/constitution-of-the-mexican-mafia-democracy-respect-and-no-bets-worth-more-than-ice-cream\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Constitution of the Mexican Mafia: Democracy, respect and no bets worth more than ice cream<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This week, Valdez Villarreal was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mysanantonio.com\/news\/mexico\/la_barbies_arrest_a_big_blow_to_mexicos_organized_crime_101932783.html\">arrested in Mexico<\/a> and NPR featured an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=129558719\">interesting interview<\/a> with Jason yesterday about Villarreal. You can hear a Mexican ballad that extols the virtues of the drug lord, and how he&#8217;s such an intelligent businessman. Great stuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You can hear a Mexican ballad that extols the virtues of the drug boss, and how he&#8217;s such an intelligent businessman. Great stuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[42,168,283,323,451],"class_list":["post-6534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-express-news-stories","category-journalism","tag-article","tag-drug-cartels","tag-la-barbie","tag-mexico","tag-san-antonio-express-news","infinite-scroll-item","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mexican authorities arrest &quot;La Barbie&quot; | John Tedesco<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/johntedesco.net\/blog\/2010\/09\/01\/mexican-authorities-arrest-la-barbie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mexican authorities arrest &quot;La Barbie&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You can hear a Mexican ballad that extols the virtues of the drug boss, and how he&#039;s such an intelligent businessman. 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