Angel Del Villar and Del Records Exec Arrested By FBI; Alleged Cartel Ties
Vanessa Khan -
The initial arrest was made early this morning by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Angel Del Villar, and DEL Records CFO, Luca Scalisi, facing major charges that violate the United States Kingpin Act.
File Photo Edit/ Canva
LOS ANGELES, CA -(RYM)- In an arrest that spans from an investigation going on for years, DEL Records CEO Angel Del Villar & CFO Luca Scalisi were both arrested this morning by the Federal Bureau Investigation.
File Photo: February 20 - Left to right: DEL Records President Luca Scalisi, DEL Records CEO/Founder Angel del Villar, me, DEL Records VP of External Affairs Brian Gutierrez, and three-time world boxing champion Abner Mares. /Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard
According to a press release published by the United States Attorney’s Office (State of California), “Del Villar and Scalisi are named in a criminal complaint that accuses them of conspiracy to transact in property of specially designated narcotics traffickers in violation of the Kingpin Act”. Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act “Kingpin Act” became federal law on December 3, 1999. The law’s main objective is to block significantly known international traffickers any kind of access to the federal financial system, as well as block any and all types of transactions between named traffickers and businesses established in the U.S.
A third name was released as a person named in the initial complaint, Jesus Perez Alvear,37, of Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. Alvear is known mainly for his work as a concert promoter in Mexico working for Gallistica Diamante, a.k.a. Ticket Premier. The F.B.I is currently looking for Alvear, and anyone with any potential idea of his whereabouts is urged to report any knowledge to the FBI to assist in the investigation.
Jesus Perez Alvear - Photo from now deleted Twitter Account/ Credit IQ
On April 6, 2018, Perez was actually named as a blocked individual by the United States Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. He was blocked by the agency from doing any kind of business transactions with any person or business within U.S. Jurisdiction. According to the U.S. Department of Treasurery Alvear was allegedly laundering money on behalf of the powerful Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) and the Los Cuinis Drug Trafficking Organization (Los Cuinis DTO) Through his businesses of Concert Promotions and Prostitution.
“Our designation of Jesus Perez Alvear exposes his role helping CJNG and Los Cuinis exploit the Mexican music industry to launder drug proceeds and glorify their criminal activities. We are targeting fashion photographer Miguel Jose Leone who leads an international prostitution ring that recruits models and beauty pageant contestants from South America and Europe into prostitution for senior members of the Los Cuinis DTO.” -Sigal Mandelker, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (U.S. Department of Treasury April 2018)
Alvear Perez was one of 2 named in the sanction placed by the U.S. Another individual named under the sanction included Miguel Jose Leone Martinez/ Credit: Federal Register
It is very possible that DEL Records and Villar were placed on the Radar of the FBI following his early interactions as well as transactional history with Alvear prior to the sanction being placed against him.
As the documents stated, a well-known unnamed artist in the Regional Mexican Genre was approached in April 2018 by the FBI as the agency informed the Musician about the sanction placed on Alvear and how it barred any U.S. Individual/Business from conducting business with Perez. Including for the artist, in particular, to perform in any concerts that Perez promoted. Less than 10 DAYS LATER the artist went on to perform at a concert promoted by Alvear. To make matters more interesting is that a credit card used by Del Villar shows a transaction of a private jet that brought the musician from Van Nuys Airport to the performance in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
According to the docs the trend of performances continued on between the musician, Alvear and Del Villar. With DEL Records having allegedly 100% Knowledge of the situation, as alleged by the docs of the filed complaint.
No Statements have been made by either the arresting parties or DEL Records following the incident, however on Instagram Del Villar posted on his stories a video of what looked to be him in the back of a car driving through the highway near Downtown Los Angeles.
Instagram Story Posts Made by Angel Del Villar on The Same Day as His Arrest/ Credit: Instagram - angeldelvillar27
Del Villar and Scalisi were both released later in the day on Bond [100k for Del Villar, and 35k for Scalisi]. Following the release, the United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles scheduled their arraignments for July 20, 2022.