{"id":1345,"date":"2024-06-14T17:23:34","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T17:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/latin-music-ceo-asks-judge-to-dismiss-charges-over-mexican-cartel-link\/"},"modified":"2024-06-18T06:32:35","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T06:32:35","slug":"latin-music-ceo-asks-judge-to-dismiss-charges-over-mexican-cartel-link","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/latin-music-ceo-asks-judge-to-dismiss-charges-over-mexican-cartel-link\/","title":{"rendered":"Latin Music CEO Asks Judge To Dismiss Charges Over Mexican Cartel Link"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Latin Music CEO Asks Judge To Dismiss Charges Over Mexican Cartel Link – A Latin music executive accused of doing business with a concert promoter linked to Mexican drug cartels is now asking a federal judge to dismiss the charges, arguing that the indictment is unfairly vague and the sign of an eventual \u201csucker punch\u201d by prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Angel Del Villar<\/strong>, the CEO of Los Angeles-based Del Records, was charged in 2022 with violating a federal law that bars U.S. residents from doing business with known drug traffickers. Prosecutors say he repeatedly arranged concerts with a Guadalajara-based promoter who has ties to Mexican cartels.<\/p>\n

But in a motion filed Thursday, Del Villar\u2019s attorneys say the indictment failed to clearly state what aspects of that federal law he allegedly violated, leaving him unable to properly prepare a defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of an indictment is to protect individuals from government ambush,\u201d writes Del Villar\u2019s attorney. \u201cA person whose liberty is at stake is entitled to know with certainty what offenses they are alleged to have committed [and] against what theories they must be prepared to contend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe indictment here thwarts those goals,\u201d Del Villar\u2019s lawyers say. \u201cNeither Del Villar nor his codefendants, upon reading it, can be sure from which direction the government\u2019s attack will come \u2014 a sure setup for a sucker punch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Del Villar is represented by Drew Findling<\/strong>, a well-known criminal defense attorney for music industry figures. The Atlanta lawyer with has previously represented Gucci Mane, YFN Lucci and members of Migos in criminal cases; last year, he successfully defended Cardi B over a\u00a0microphone-throwing incident\u00a0in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Founded by Del Villar in 2008, Del Records has grown into a top record company for Regional Mexican music. The label is home to m\u00fasica mexicana supergroup Eslabon Armado, whose global hit, \u201cElla Baila Sola\u201d with Peso Pluma, became one of the biggest songs of 2023, as well as Lenin Ramirez and other chart-topping artists.<\/p>\n

But in June 2022, Del Villar, 41, and chief financial officer Luca Scalisi<\/strong>, 56, and Del Records itself were all charged with conspiring to violate the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. Passed in 1999, the law allows the U.S. to impose targeted sanctions on foreign individuals involved in the illegal drug trade and ban U.S. residents from doing business with them.<\/p>\n

In Del Villar\u2019s case, prosecutors claim that he repeatedly worked with Jesus Perez Alvear<\/strong>, a Mexican concert promoter who runs a company called Gallistica Diamente (Ticket Premier). The U.S. Treasury Department added Perez to the sanctions list<\/a> in 2018, claiming he and Gallistica had helped cartels \u201cexploit the Mexican music industry to launder drug proceeds and glorify their criminal activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutors claim Del Villar and Scalisi used Perez to arrange four Mexican concerts for an undisclosed Del Records artist, then accepted nearly $200,000 in payments from him, all while clearly aware that Perez had been sanctioned. Charging documents cite a never-sent Del Records press release acknowledging that status, as well as private messages in which Scalisi noted that Perez was \u201cunder homeland security watch\u201d and Del Villar was directly told that Perez was \u201ca sanctioned US person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two and a half years later \u2013 after the case was pushed back numerous times \u2013 both Del Villar and Scalisi are now pushing to dismiss the charges.<\/p>\n

In his filing on Thursday, Del Villar\u2019s attorneys argue that the indictment is not clear about which aspect of the Kingpin Act he was accused of violating. Is it a provision banning transactions related to a significant drug trafficker, or another one prohibiting transactions that seek to evade the law itself? Findling says prosecutors \u201cdo not specify.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be one thing had the indictment plainly set out the precise elements of [those separate provisions],\u201d Del Villar\u2019s attorney writes. \u201cIt would even be acceptable had the indictment set out facts that would make clear which provision was at issue. But it does neither.\u201d<\/p>\n

A response from prosecutors is due next month. If the case is not dismissed, a trial is tentatively scheduled for October.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Latin Music CEO Asks Judge To Dismiss Charges Over Mexican Cartel Link – A Latin music executive accused of doing business with a concert promoter linked to Mexican […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1051,1908,594,1907,299,423,1906,1997,1909,1406,593],"class_list":["post-1345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-asks","tag-cartel","tag-ceo","tag-charges","tag-dismiss","tag-judge","tag-latin","tag-latin-music-ceo-asks-judge-to-dismiss-charges-over-mexican-cartel-link","tag-link","tag-mexican","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1404,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions\/1404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}