A Huntington Beach man was sentenced to four years in federal prison for working with a concert promoter in Mexico with ties to drug cartels.
José Ángel Del Villar, 45, the CEO of Del Records and its related talent agency Del Entertainment Inc., was sentenced Friday to a jail term and fined $2 million, the United States Department of Justice said in a news release.
He and his company were convicted in March on 10 counts of violating the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act and an additional count of conspiracy to transact in property of specially designated narcotics traffickers in violation of the Kingpin Act.
The company was sentenced to three years of probation and fined $1.8 million.
Del Villar and Del Entertainment worked with Jesús Pérez Alvear, aka “Chucho,” of Guadalajara, in 2018 and 2019.
Pérez and his company, Gallistica Diamante aka Ticket Premier, “facilitated money laundering for the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) and the Los Cuinis drug trafficking organization,” the DOJ said.
As a result, Pérez and his business were designated as narcotics traffickers, meaning working with them is a violation of the Kingpin Act.
“Even though Del Villar and Del Entertainment were aware that it was illegal to engage in transactions or dealings with Pérez, they willfully did business with him by continuing to have a Del Entertainment musical artist perform at concerts in which Pérez and Del Entertainment had a financial interest,” prosecutors said.
Co-defendant Luca Scalisi, 59, of West Hollywood, pleaded guilty in May to one count of conspiracy to transact in property of specially designated narcotics traffickers in violation of the Kingpin Act, and he’s scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 22.
Pérez was murdered in Mexico in December.
