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Skip Sewell
If you listened to season one of this podcast about the murder of Margaret Coon, you may remember a guy named Skip Sewell. Skip spent 26 years with the DEA in New Orleans. After retiring in 2017, he joined the local DA's office and investigated Margaret's death. Skip suspected one of Margaret's neighbors, a divisive former computer programmer named Patricia Curry, may have put a hit on Margaret in retaliation for some unknown slight. But that's not what this episode is about. Back in the late 90s, Skip was still a hard charging DEA agent known for working difficult and dangerous cases. In 1999, he was wrapping up the biggest case of his career. Its target was a notorious local drug kingpin named Richard Pena.
Jed Lipinski
On the streets of New Orleans, he was called the Cuban because of all his similarities to Al Pacino's role as a drug kingpin in Scarface.
Skip Sewell
Pena wasn't Cuban, he was from the Dominican Republic. But his violent ascent to the top of New Orleans drug underworld in the 90s resembled Tony Montana's fictional rise to power in Miami. Skip and the DEA had succeeded in indicting Pena and charging him with eight murders, though Skip believed he was behind far more than that. He thought Pena's organization was responsible for New Orleans becoming the murder capital of America in the mid-90s.
Jed Lipinski
I mean, we could literally attribute 100, if not more so shootings and killings to Pena and his and his gangs. He was a psychopath. He was a vicious killing machine.
Skip Sewell
Pena was now in custody and Skip was consumed with trial preparation and locating Additional witnesses.
Jed Lipinski
I really wasn't looking for another case because I was so busy working the Pena case. But an informant came in one day and he told me that there was a bigger drug dealer operating out there than Pena. Skip had his doubts, but the informant insisted that it was true.
Skip Sewell
He may have been busy with the Pena case, but. But Skip was what's known in the DEA as an outside agent. The kind who needs to be in the field, surveilling bad guys, kicking down doors and making arrests. The mundane administrative tasks of trial prep bored him to tears. And what if the informant was right and there really was a bigger drug dealer in New Orleans than Richard Pena? So Skip arranged a clandestine meeting with the informant. That meeting would lead Skip down a path toward one of the most influential and elusive criminals in modern U.S. history. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is gone south. Skip had spent the better part of seven years investigating Richard Pena. He saw Pena's arrest as a victory for the DEA and the city of New Orleans. He took offense at the idea that just months after taking Pena off the street, an even bigger fish had taken his place. And yet, when Skip asked his informant who this person was, the informant admitted he didn't know much about him.
Jed Lipinski
All he knew was the guy's name was Big Oz.
Skip Sewell
Big Oz was already on the DEA's radar. He ran a car repair shop on Claiborne Avenue a few blocks north of the French Quarter. According to Skip, it was an obvious front for a drug distribution network.
Jed Lipinski
And let me tell you about Big Oz. Big Oz was. He deserved his name. He was about 6 foot 6 and weighed 320, 330 pounds. But he was a mild mannered, easygoing guy. And we knew he dealt cocaine. His name had come up frequently in a number of investigations, but we had no idea the volume he was doing.
Skip Sewell
Skip also had no idea who his supplier was. So we decided to approach one of Big Oz's subordinates, a mid level dealer known as D. I just approached D.
Jed Lipinski
And asked him if he wanted to cooperate.
Skip Sewell
Dee didn't have much choice. He had two prior drug convictions and if convicted on a third charge, he was facing a possible life sentence.
Jed Lipinski
So he agreed to work as an informant and wear a wire and go negotiate and go try to make a buy from Big Oz.
Skip Sewell
A few days later, Skip and some undercover agents set up surveillance on Big Oz's repair shop. They spent a few days watching people come and go. Then they told Dee to see if Big Oz would sell him a few kilos of cocaine.
Jed Lipinski
So we sent Dee over there. We wired him up. Big Eyes told him, hey, just go drive around for a little while. I'm gonna call you in a little bit. Well, we assumed that he was gonna get something. But when they eventually met in a parking lot, Big eyes gave him 100 pounds of marijuana.
Skip Sewell
Skip was annoyed. Dee had just accepted $50,000 worth of marijuana on credit with the expectation that he would pay Oz as soon as he sold it.
Jed Lipinski
When I saw Dee and he gave me the marijuana, I'm like, why did you take that? Now we got a problem. My bosses are not going to want to pay $50,000 for 100 pounds of marijuana. So we had to regroup and figure out, how are we going to keep Oz on the hook.
Skip Sewell
The DEA gave Dee a few thousand bucks to string Big Oz along until a new shipment of cocaine came in. Something Big Oz promised would happen soon. When a week passed with no sign of the delivery, Skip began to think Big Oz had been tipped off to their operation. Then he got a call from a detective in a neighboring parish.
Jed Lipinski
They had pulled over a Bronco with a Mexican guy in it and 15 kilos of coke hidden in a secret compartment. When we put two and two together, we realized that was the cocaine that Big Oz was expecting to be delivered to him.
Skip Sewell
When Skip questioned the driver, the man insisted he was only a courier. He didn't know the supplier's identity. But he, too, agreed to work as an informant and make what's known as a controlled delivery to Big Oz.
Jed Lipinski
And he did exactly that. He brought the cocaine in. We met Big Oz at a hotel in New Orleans East. And when Big Oz took possession of the cocaine, we ended up arresting him.
Skip Sewell
Like both men before him, Big Oz wasted no time in agreeing to cooperate with the government. He also seemed unclear on who his supplier really was.
Jed Lipinski
All he knew at the time was this guy named Mike from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Subsequent to that, he did confess that over the last year or so, that he had received over 1500 kilos of. Of cocaine from this guy Mike. 1500 kilos of cocaine, again, in a city like New Orleans, is quite a bit of cocaine.
Skip Sewell
Naturally, the fact that Mike was based in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, led Skip to think he was a member of a Mexican drug cartel. But Big Oz seemed convinced that Mike was a US Citizen. His English was perfect, he said, and he appeared to have a grasp of American culture that seemed unlikely even for someone in a Mexican border town like Nuevo Laredo. Still, Big Oz said he'd rarely dealt with Mike directly. He dealt instead with one of Mike's distributors, Another local character named Cesar Pena Garrone.
Jed Lipinski
So we started watching Cesar Pena Garrone and we were kind of surprised at what we found. He wasn't a tough looking drug dealer, a typical looking Mexican narco. He was a slightly built, young looking kid that could almost pass for a teenager. In fact, he looked so unlike a drug dealer that we weren't sure we were on the right guy for a long time.
Skip Sewell
Cesar, it turned out, was living with a stripper in the French Quarter. And according to sources, he was supplying cocaine to the bars and clubs along Bourbon Street.
Jed Lipinski
Specifically, like the service workers, bartenders, waiters, waitresses, people that worked the late night shifts typically in the French Quarter.
Skip Sewell
In locating Caesar, Skip was one step closer to Mike, the mysterious supplier in Mexico. Taking down Mike, he knew, would be a major coup for the dea. But the arrest of Big Oz and the seizure of that 15 kilos had created a sense of paranoia and distrust in Mike's local distribution network. Mike had apparently cut off shipments of cocaine until a replacement for Big Oz could be found. Skip's plan was to wait and see who that replacement might be. The last thing he expected was to get a call from the man who was auditioning for the job.
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Skip Sewell
I'm Adam Scott and we make a TV show called Severance. On January 17th, Severance is back for.
Jed Lipinski
Season two on Apple TV and we can't wait for you guys to see it.
Skip Sewell
And before the premiere, Ben and I are gonna be binging season one and putting out daily recap podcasts. Yep, each weekday beginning January 7th, we'll.
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Be dropping an episode featuring exclusive behind.
Skip Sewell
The scenes tidbits and brilliant insights from our cast and crew.
Jed Lipinski
And us.
Skip Sewell
Patricia Arquette, Britt Lauer, Zach Cherry, John Turturro. The list goes on. All your favorite Lumen employees, their friends.
Jed Lipinski
Families, enemies, in your feed every single weekday.
Skip Sewell
And here's the best part. After that, we're gonna keep going Tune in weekly as we recap every episode of season two. The podcast drops on the same day the episode comes out. It's the Severance podcast with Ben and Adam on Apple Podcasts, the Odysee app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Jed Lipinski
So one day I'm at the house, it was on a weekend, and I get a call from Dee. And Dee tells me I'm headed to Laredo with Cesar to meet Mike.
Skip Sewell
If Mike was going to start shipping cocaine to New Orleans again, Dee explained, he needed to know the people he was shipping it to were trustworthy. D figured that meeting Mike in person would put his fears to rest. The shipments would resume, and Dee would take over as Mike's local distributor.
Jed Lipinski
And I'm like, wait a minute. I told him, d, you cannot do this one. He was on probation, and we hadn't yet gotten the probation office permission to use him. Second, you can't just leave and go somewhere without any supervision of the dea. But telling him this on the phone, he says he's coming back, he's coming back, I gotta go. And he hung up the phone on me. So I'm panicking at this point.
Skip Sewell
It was bad enough that his informant was traveling to Mexico to negotiate a drug deal. It was worse that he was doing so in Nuevo Laredo. At the time, escalating cartel violence had made Nuevo Laredo one of the epicenters of Mexico's drug war, kidnappings, assassinations, and shootouts in public spaces were a daily occurrence.
Jed Lipinski
I'm trying to get in touch with him. He's not answering the phone. I don't hear anything from him. Saturday goes by, Sunday goes by. I'm trying to figure out what am I going to do on Monday when I have to go tell my boss that, hey, I've got this informant that went over to meet this Mexican drug trafficker, and we have no idea where he's at or what he's doing.
Skip Sewell
When another day passed without word from Dee, Skip had to confront the possibility that he'd been kidnapped or killed in Mexico. He was rehearsing how to put this to his boss when D finally called back.
Jed Lipinski
And he tells me this bizarre, crazy story about what happened. Keep in mind, D wasn't the sharpest guy. Couldn't tell me where he went and how to get there. He couldn't tell if he was in Texas or Mexico, but he believed it was Mexico, but wasn't sure. But his story, he told me, was that when he got to where they were going, Cesar pulls over and three or four black Suburbans pull up, and the men are leaning out the window with guns.
Skip Sewell
According to Dee, the men threw him and Cesar into a Suburban and drove them to Mike's compound. Dee describes seeing a garish mansion outfitted with gun turrets and men armed with AR15s guarding the entrance.
Jed Lipinski
And he's taken inside the house and he's thrown into a little small, like, dirt room where he stays indefinitely. He doesn't know. He says he can't tell if it's night, if his day, how long he's been there. Every once in a while, they bring him some water, but that was about it.
Skip Sewell
What Dee didn't know was that upstairs, Cesar was desperately trying to persuade Mike not to kill Dee. Apparently, Mike assumed that Dee was a snitch, that Dee was responsible for Big Oz's arrest and the seizure of those 15 kilos.
Jed Lipinski
Well, finally, Cesar convinced Mike not to kill him. And at that point, Dee says, they came and grabbed him out of the room. They brought him into this large dining room area, and he said it was one of the biggest buffets he's ever seen. There was food everywhere. There was music again out of, like, a Hollywood movie. There was women bands. He sat down with Mike and they talked. And Mike agreed that he would supply him with a trial run of cocaine.
Skip Sewell
As Dee unfolded the story over the phone, Skip was speechless. He couldn't believe that Dee had actually made it inside Mike's mansion and spoken with him face to face.
Jed Lipinski
So I asked Dee, I said, well, you know, are we getting a load of cocaine? What happens? And he tells me, I don't know. And I'm, what do you mean I don't know? You went all the way down there to meet with this guy? I mean, he didn't tell you if he was going to deal with you, if something was going to come out of this? I mean, what was the purpose of the trip? And he again said, I don't know. And I'm very frustrated at this point. Like, what do you mean you don't know? I'm like, okay. I said, well, I tell you what, when you hear from him, call me and let me know what's going on.
Skip Sewell
Despite having an informant inside the Mexican drug trafficker's mansion, Skip was somehow no closer to catching him. When months passed with no updates from Dee, Skip assumed the case had run its course. He reluctantly resumed the tedious tasks of the Richard Pena prosecution.
Jed Lipinski
Until one day Dee calls me, and as nonchalant as can be, he says, hey, the coke is here. And I'm like, what do you mean? And he says, yes, it's here. I'm like, well, where is it? He goes, well, I'm not sure. So I said, all right, come down to the DA office and let's figure this out. Let's talk.
Skip Sewell
Skip and a group of agents met Dee at the DEA office. D told them he'd gotten a call that the drugs were on their way.
Jed Lipinski
I'm like, okay. So we sat around for a couple hours. I picked his brain, didn't get much more. And he said, well, I do have a number of a guy that I can call in Mexico. I'm like, well, that was kind of important. You should have probably told us that. And he takes a number out of his wallet and we call the number. And the guy Mike picks up and he tells him, he says, hey, listen, what I need you to do is I need you to go the Halday Inn bar in the French Quarter and there's gonna be a guy there, a Mexican guy, he's gonna have on a cowboy hat and a white button down shirt. I need you to meet with him.
Skip Sewell
Skip and the agents immediately wired Dee up and followed him to the Holiday Inn. After Dee walked in, Skip sent two of the agents inside to sit at the bar and pretend they were having a drink. Just a few stools away stood the Mexican guy in a white T shirt and cowboy hat. They watched as he gave Dee, a pair of keys to a Dodge truck parked outside.
Jed Lipinski
And the Mexican guy walks out of the bar and walks down the street, and we followed him. And he gets in a cab.
Skip Sewell
From there, the agents sprang into action. Some of them followed the Mexican guy to a nearby hotel, where they placed him under arrest. Skip and the others brought the Dodge truck back to the DEA headquarters.
Jed Lipinski
Once we get up there, we have a K9 dog on standby. The K9 dog sniffs alerts to the truck. Right away, we start tearing apart the truck. And we found the cocaine inside the door panels of the truck. The cocaine was actually everywhere. It was 60 pounds of it, so it was in every nook and cranny of the truck.
Skip Sewell
Meanwhile, Dee made contact with Caesar to let him know he'd received the shipment. The two agreed to meet at Oshoney's in New Orleans east to discuss payment. As they were negotiating, agents barreled in. They arrested Caesar and brought him back to the office for questioning. The DEA now had Mike's man in New Orleans. The question was, would he be willing to give Skip what he needed to take down a drug kingpin in Mexico? This cold and flu season, Instacart is.
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Skip Sewell
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Jed Lipinski
Yes, I am.
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Skip Sewell
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Skip Sewell
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Jed Lipinski
I know.
Skip Sewell
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Jed Lipinski
Sell.
Skip Sewell
Track your car's value with Carvana Value Tracker. Today, despite facing more than 20 years in prison, Cesar Pena Garon, the local distributor behind the French Quarter's cocaine supply, was not nearly as willing to cooperate as the men lower down the chain. After several hours of interrogation, though, Cesar begrudgingly agreed to talk. Skip's first question was, who is this guy that you all refer to as Mike?
Jed Lipinski
Cesar tells us that Mike, the guy in Mexico, is actually Edgar Baldez Villareal, known as Labarbi. And to some extent, I was a little taken back by that because I'm used to these drug dealers having names like the Lord of the Skies, the Beast, the Roach, the Desert Ants, all these cool nicknames. And my drug kingpin's name is Labarbie. And Cesar tells me that, hey, he's a pretty major player, and he's scared to death of Labarbee. He's known him for years. And Labarbie, he says, had once lived in Laredo, but fled to Nuevo Laredo when he was about to get arrested in the United States. And now he was a major player. He had come up from dealing small amounts of marijuana to a major cocaine trafficker in Mexico.
Skip Sewell
Cesar explained that Edgar had gotten the nickname Labarbie in high school. Laredo, where he grew up, is close to 95% Hispanic, and Edgar's blue eyes and light colored hair stood out. His football coach had initially given him the nickname Ken, which over time had somehow evolved into Labarbie. Whatever his nickname's origins, the DEA had now flipped LaBarbie's local distributor and seized two substantial shipments of cocaine. Skip felt they were ready to indict him, but the U.S. attorney wasn't sure.
Jed Lipinski
The U.S. attorney told me he needed more information, wanted more corroborating information, and I was frustrated. I'm like, Jesus. I mean, we got the phone calls, we got the 30 kilos of cocaine. We got Caesar corroborating all this. We got D corroborating everything that happened while he was in Mexico. I mean, I didn't know what more that they wanted. I've been indicted people on less, but in this particular case, they wanted more.
Skip Sewell
So Skip flew to Laredo to gather what he could about Labarbie.
Jed Lipinski
And one of the first things we did was we got a copy of Labarbie's birth certificate, confirming that he was a US Citizen.
Skip Sewell
While they were in town, Skip also met with DEA agents and a local narcotics detective, men who'd witnessed Labarbie's transformation from high school football player to high ranking cartel operative. Edgar, as they called him, had been raised by a happy and affluent family. His brother became a probation officer. His sister was a prosecutor for the county attorney's office. Unlike them, Edgar had started dealing pot and married a young woman with ties to organized crime. After an indictment for marijuana trafficking forced him across the Mexican border, he'd begun his upward climb through the ranks of the powerful Beltran Leyva cartel. For the past year, he'd been engaged in a bloody battle for control of the lucrative i35 corridor, which runs from Laredo through the Midwest and is arguably the most vital drug trafficking route in the United States. Before he left Texas, Skip stopped by the DEA's Houston office. According to an agent there, they'd obtained their own recording of LaBarbie's voice a year or so earlier.
Jed Lipinski
We brought over our recordings, and when they put them on the machine, however it's done, they matched the voices, and at that point, we knew, yes, that's who we had.
Skip Sewell
We had labarbie back in New Orleans. Skip passed all this information to the U.S. attorney. He seemed satisfied. In 2002, LaBarbie was indicted in the Eastern District of Louisiana on two counts related to cocaine trafficking. The next step was extraditing him from Mexico, but that was easier said than done.
Jed Lipinski
Okay, at that time, Labarbi was a pretty big fish. And not only was the cooperation between the United States and Mexico not very good at that time as far as extraditing someone, but he had a squad of about 20, 30 guys that were with him all the time as protection. And the actual logistics of trying to arrest him were so complicated because it would involve a shootout, and he moved all the time from place to place. It was hard to pin him down. So I had this big, long investigation into LaBarbie. He was indicted, had provisional arrest warrants for him, did everything that I could possibly do, and then that was it. Like, we hit a brick wall.
Skip Sewell
More than a decade would pass with no sign of an extradition treaty. During that time, Skip heard from DEA agents in Memphis, Atlanta, and Jackson, Mississippi, telling him Labarbi's organization had taken over cocaine distribution there as well. Meanwhile, Skip's counterparts in Mexico updated him on Labarbie's increasingly brutal reputation in the Mexican drug trade.
Jed Lipinski
He had grown up, so to speak, in the cartel and gone up the ladder. Now he was a really big fish.
Skip Sewell
In the mid 2000s, Labarbee was put in charge of the Beltran Leyva cartel's Acapulco operation. At one point, a rival cartel known as the Zetas tried to kidnap him, but the local police tipped him off. Labarbie's men kidnapped the Zetas instead and delivered them to his ranch.
Jed Lipinski
And he interrogated them, asking them, who sent you here? What are you here for? And then at the end of it, someone who they suspect, or we suspect, was Labarbee, he walked down and shot all four of the Zetas in the head.
Skip Sewell
LaBarbie's associates videotaped the executions. They later mailed the video to a number of US Media Outlets including the Dallas Morning News.
Jed Lipinski
And this was basically a warning. Stay away from LaBarbie. Don't try to catch LaBarbie.
Skip Sewell
But authorities didn't heed the warning. In August 2010, Mexican marines descended on a ranch where he was staying in Toluca, about 40 miles outside Mexico City. And LaBarbie surrendered.
Jed Lipinski
When he was arrested, everyone expected a shootout. Everyone expected dead bodies and people getting hurt, people getting shot. But that didn't happen.
Skip Sewell
Instead, labarbi went peacefully. When authorities paraded him before news cameras, photos of labarbi smirking in a green polo shirt went viral.
Jed Lipinski
So I was notified that labarbie was arrested. I was kind of surprised. I never thought that we would ever get him.
Skip Sewell
Since Skip was the first to indict labarbi on cocaine charges, he expected New Orleans would be the first to prosecute him.
Jed Lipinski
I mean, labarbie was a prize, right? He was a big deal, a big fish. When you go through all that work to indict someone, you want to see the end results of your work. Which would have been labarbee coming into court handcuffed and seeing him face to face.
Skip Sewell
But Skip never got the chance. The DOJ decided to extradite LaBarbie to Atlanta, which was better equipped to handle security for a drug kingpin. In 2016, Labarbi pleaded guilty to charges of cocaine trafficking and money laundering. He was later sentenced to 49 years and one month in federal prison. As far as anyone knows, Labarbi is the only US born citizen to become a high level cartel boss in Mexico. He was the biggest catch of Skip's 26 year career with the DEA. And yet Skip never spoke a word to him. And in labarbi's rare comments to the press, he declined to talk about his background.
Jed Lipinski
At one point, I tried to contact Labarbi. I wrote him a letter. I just, you know, for some bizarre reason, I wanted to contact him and talk with him and see if he had any interest in talking to me. I'm assuming he got the letter, but he never responded.
Skip Sewell
In Skip's retirement, he often reflects on what caused a happy middle class kid from Texas to become a mass murdering drug lord. After reporting this story for a few weeks, I was left wondering the same thing. If we manage to learn more, we'll let you know. If you have information, story tips, or feedback you'd like to share with the Gone south team, please email us@gonesouthpodcastmail.com that's gonesouthpodcastmail.com we're on Facebook TikTok and Instagram @ Gone South Podcast. You can also sign up for our newsletter on substack at Gone southwithjed Lipinski Gone south is an Odyssey Original podcast. It's created, written and narrated by me, Jed Lipinski. Our executive producers are Jenna Weiss Berman, Maddy Sprung Keyser, Tom Lipinski, Lloyd Lockridge, and me. Our story editors are Tom Lipinski, Maddy Sprung Keyser and Joel Lovell. Gone south is edited, mixed and mastered by Chris Basel and Andy Jaskowicz. Production support from Ian Mont and Sean Cherry. Special thanks to J.D. crowley, Leah Rees, Dennis, Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Kurt Courtney and Hilary Schuff. If you want to hear more of Gone south, please take a few seconds to rate and review the show. It.
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I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends and together we have the podcast Office Ladies where we rewatched every single episode of the Office with insane behind the scenes stories, hilarious guests and lots of laughs.
Skip Sewell
Guess who's sitting next to me?
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Steve.
Jed Lipinski
It is my girl in the studio.
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Every Wednesday we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from the Office and our friendship with brand new guests and we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments. So join us for brand new Office Ladies 6.0 episodes every Wednesday. Plus on Mondays we are taking a second drink. You can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't wait to see you there for Follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts.
Gone South Episode: S4|E14: La Barbie Release Date: January 15, 2025
Host: Jed Lipinski
Contributor: Skip Sewell
In the fourteenth episode of Season 4, titled "La Barbie," Gone South takes listeners deep into the murky waters of international drug trafficking, focusing on one of the most intriguing figures in modern criminal history: Edgar Baldez Villareal, infamously known as "La Barbie." Hosted by Jed Lipinski and featuring insights from DEA agent Skip Sewell, this episode chronicles the relentless pursuit and eventual capture of a high-profile drug lord whose path from a middle-class Texan to a Mexican cartel kingpin encapsulates the complex dynamics of organized crime in the South.
The episode opens with a recap of Season 1, reminding listeners of Skip Sewell's involvement in the investigation of Margaret Coon's murder. However, the focus swiftly shifts to Skip's tenure with the DEA in the late 1990s, highlighting his pivotal role in bringing down Richard Pena, a Dominican-born drug kingpin whose violent rise mirrored the infamous Tony Montana from Scarface.
At [02:35], Jed Lipinski describes Pena's notoriety:
"We could literally attribute 100, if not more so shootings and killings to Pena and his and his gangs. He was a psychopath. He was a vicious killing machine."
Despite indicting Pena on multiple charges, Skip suspected that Pena's organization was merely the tip of the iceberg, responsible for making New Orleans the murder capital of America during that period.
Skip Sewell's investigation took an unexpected turn when an informant revealed the existence of an even more formidable drug dealer, nicknamed "Big Oz." Operating under the guise of a car repair shop in Claiborne Avenue, Big Oz was a significant player whose operations surpassed those of Pena. Jed Lipinski provides a vivid description at [04:28]:
"He was about 6 foot 6 and weighed 320, 330 pounds. But he was a mild-mannered, easygoing guy."
Skip's strategy involved turning a mid-level dealer, Dee, into an informant to infiltrate Big Oz's network. However, unforeseen complications arose when Dee mistakenly accepted $50,000 worth of marijuana instead of cocaine, jeopardizing the operation ([05:24] Skip Sewell).
The arrest of Big Oz unveiled further connections to a mysterious supplier named Mike from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. This revelation pointed towards deeper cartel involvement and hinted at the presence of a more significant threat. As Skip and his team delved deeper, they discovered that Mike was connected to Edgar Baldez Villareal, later known as La Barbie.
At [08:58], Skip Sewell elaborates:
"Cesar, it turned out, was living with a stripper in the French Quarter. And according to sources, he was supplying cocaine to the bars and clubs along Bourbon Street."
This connection was pivotal, leading Skip to initiate a cautious approach to uncover La Barbie's true identity and operations.
Dee's mission to meet with Mike in person led him to Nuevo Laredo, amidst escalating cartel violence. During this perilous encounter, Dee reported being captured and held in Mike's heavily guarded compound. The adrenaline of the situation is palpable when Skip describes Dee's report at [15:11]:
"As Dee unfolded the story over the phone, Skip was speechless. He couldn't believe that Dee had actually made it inside Mike's mansion and spoken with him face to face."
Months of uncertainty ensued, with Dee providing minimal updates until he finally informed Skip of an impending cocaine shipment. This breakthrough facilitated a strategic operation that culminated in the discovery of 60 pounds of concealed cocaine within a Dodge truck at [18:38].
The arrest of Caesar Pena Garrone, Big Oz's subordinate, revealed crucial information about Mike's true identity—Edgar Baldez Villareal, or La Barbie. Jed Lipinski narrates Cesar's revelation at [21:17]:
"Cesar tells us that Mike, the guy in Mexico, is actually Edgar Baldez Villareal, known as La Barbie."
La Barbie's rise within the Beltran Leyva cartel showcased his strategic acumen and ruthless efficiency. Despite numerous attempts, extraditing La Barbie from Mexico proved challenging due to his extensive protection and the complexities of international law.
In August 2010, Mexican marines successfully captured La Barbie in Toluca without the violent confrontations that were widely expected. Jed Lipinski reflects on the surreal nature of his arrest at [27:31]:
"When authorities paraded him before news cameras, photos of labarbi smirking in a green polo shirt went viral."
La Barbie's extradition to the United States and subsequent guilty plea in 2016 marked the culmination of Skip Sewell's two-decade-long pursuit. His 49-year sentence underscored the magnitude of his crimes and the DEA's commitment to dismantling powerful drug networks.
"La Barbie" serves as a testament to the intricate dance between law enforcement and organized crime. Through Skip Sewell's unwavering dedication and strategic prowess, Gone South paints a comprehensive picture of how a seemingly ordinary individual can ascend to the heights of criminal supremacy. The episode not only recounts the procedural aspects of the investigation but also delves into the personal reflections of both Skip and Jed, pondering the factors that drive individuals toward such destructive paths.
Jed Lipinski [02:35]:
"We could literally attribute 100, if not more so shootings and killings to Pena and his and his gangs. He was a psychopath. He was a vicious killing machine."
Jed Lipinski [04:28]:
"He was about 6 foot 6 and weighed 320, 330 pounds. But he was a mild-mannered, easygoing guy."
Jed Lipinski [27:31]:
"When authorities paraded him before news cameras, photos of labarbi smirking in a green polo shirt went viral."
Episode "La Barbie" epitomizes Gone South's commitment to unveiling the often-overlooked narratives within Southern crime stories. Through meticulous research and compelling storytelling, Jed Lipinski and Skip Sewell offer listeners an immersive experience into the complexities of drug trafficking and the relentless pursuit of justice. This episode not only chronicles the downfall of a notorious drug lord but also serves as a reflection on the broader societal and personal factors that contribute to the rise of organized crime.
For more gripping stories and in-depth investigations, subscribe to Gone South on your preferred podcast platform and join Jed Lipinski as he uncovers the hidden facets of Southern criminal history.