Del Records CEO Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison for Violating Kingpin Act

The founder of prominent música Mexicana label Del Records was sentenced to four years in prison Friday after a jury convicted him last March of doing business with a designated drug trafficker in violation of the Kingpin Act.

Ángel Del Villar also must pay a $2 million fine and serve three years of supervised release. His sister broke down crying in the courtroom as the sentence was delivered, but Del Villar shook his head yes and appeared relieved as the judge ordered him to surrender to prison officials by Dec. 1.

“I’m very happy for the outcome,” Del Villa told Rolling Stone as he departed the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. “I’m at peace, and literally, I think I’ve left about 2,000 pounds of stress in there.”

Federal prosecutors had asked for a sentence of six and a half years behind bars.

U.S. District Court Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong could have imposed a maximum of 30 years in custody. She noted Del Villar’s dedication to music and culture at the hearing that was closed to the public for more than two hours due to privacy concerns related to the plea agreements of other witnesses and Del Villar’s health records.

“I’m very sorry to have met you under these circumstances,” the judge said Friday, addressing Del Villar directly. She told him she carefully considered what she described as a large volume of letters written to the court in support of Del Villar by people from “so many walks of life.”

“I have seen a glimpse of your character and the person that you are,” the judge said. “Your personal story is truly an extraordinary one. It has inspired many, and I suspect you will spend your incarceration guiding others and helping them.”

After a two-week trial, jurors found that Del Villar knew he was “forbidden” from transacting with Mexico-based promoter Jesus “Chucho” Pérez Alvear and Pérez’s company Gallistica Diamante – but did it anyway. The ongoing business ties were illegal because the Treasury Department previously determined Pérez’s concerts facilitated money laundering for Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), described in government filings as “one of the world’s most brutal criminal organizations.”

At trial, jurors heard that Del Villar’s most popular singer, Gerardo Ortiz, was worried he might face criminal charges if he continued to perform at Pérez’s events after officials imposed sanctions on CJNG. Prosecutors said Del Villar “ignored” Pérez’s designation and Ortiz’s concerns and hid business dealings with Pérez that generated more than $1.5 million.

“At no time has he accepted any responsibility for his actions,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing asking for the six-and-a-half years in prison. “The whole point of the sanctions regime – to economically isolate and cripple foreign bad actors – depends on U.S. persons taking sanctions designations seriously. Defendant did not.  And he directed several others not to do so.”

Del Villar, 45, and his talent company, Del Entertainment, were found guilty on March 27 of conspiracy to do business with the Guadalajara-based concert promoter after he was listed as a “specially designated narcotics traffickers” under the Kingpin Act on April 6, 2018. Officials said Pérez facilitated money laundering for both (CJNG) and the Los Cuinis drug trafficking organization. (Del Entertainment was sentenced on Friday as well. The judge ordered the company to pay a separate fine of $1.8 million and serve three years probation.)

In opening statements at trial, Del Villar’s lawyers claimed their client was the victim of a “scheme of manipulation” orchestrated by a former employee who “convinced everyone” he would make sure any transactions with Pérez were “acceptable.”

Ortiz, a Grammy-nominated narcocorrido singer known for his ballads about the drug trade, was signed to Del Records between 2009 and 2019. On the first day of Del Villar’s trial, prosecutors revealed Ortiz already had pleaded guilty in the case. According to an affidavit, FBI agents tracked Ortiz down at a Phoenix airport and handed him a letter in April 2018 that informed him he needed to stop performing at Pérez’s shows. Prosecutors claimed Ortiz initially planned to stop playing shows for Pérez but was persuaded by Del Villar to keep appearing. Prosecutors alleged it was Del Villar who convinced Ortiz to ignore the FBI warning because a portion of the profits from Pérez-backed shows flowed directly to Del Entertainment. They said Ortiz went on to play 19 more concerts for Pérez.

In her opening statement, Del Villar’s lawyer Marissa Goldberg tried to redirect blame in the case to a former employee. She said the company vice president was the one who scrapped an April 2018 press release that was supposed to announce that Ortiz would not be performing at the annual music festival organized by Pérez in Aguascalientes, Mexico. She said the ex-employee booked the jet and traveled with Ortiz to his first Pérez-promoted show after he received the letter.

“There is something deeply wrong and manipulative about how this case was created and investigated,” Goldberg told the jury. “The ones who actually created this crime, who manufactured it, are not sitting as defendants, which is even more deeply wrong.”

Ortiz parted ways with Del Records in 2019 amid a contract dispute. In a statement, a lawyer for Ortiz said his client’s guilty plea was highly tailored, relating only to his transactions with Pérez in the context of concert performances.

“Gerardo Ortiz has not pled guilty to conspiring with or doing business with Mexican drug cartels, nor is he cooperating against the cartels. Mr. Ortiz is a witness in this trial, and he has testified truthfully about performing at concerts in Mexico on behalf of promoters whom the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has banned Americans from doing business with,” the lawyer, Mark Werksman, said. “Gerardo and other artists performed at these concerts upon the assurance of his former manager that he could, when, in fact, performing in those concerts was a violation of federal law.”

Last week, the Treasury Department listed another Del Records-affiliated artist as a “specially designated narcotics trafficker” under the Kingpin Act. Ricardo Hernández Medrano, a narco-rapper known by his stage names “El Makabelico” or “Comando Exclusivo,” was added to the sanctions list based on allegations he used concerts and royalties to launder funds for the Cartel del Noreste, formerly known as Los Zetas, officials said.