Del Records CEO Guilty of Violating Kingpin Act for Working With Cartel

The CEO of Del Records has been found guilty of violating the Kingpin Act and will face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Ángel Del Villar, who’s behind the label, was found guilty of conspiracy to transact with a cartel, along with 10 other counts related to the Kingpin Act.

According to a statement from the DOJ, Del Villar — and co-defendant Del Entertainment — was found guilty of doing business with Jesus “Chucho” Pérez Alvear, a promoter that worked directly with Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación and Los Cuinis, two drug cartels in Mexico. In 2018, the DOJ designated Perez as a “narcotics trafficker” after finding that he was helping the cartels launder money. (Perez was killed in December 2024.)

“The defendants here chose to get into business with an individual they knew had ties to the CJNG and had been designated a narcotics trafficker under the Kingpin Act,” said United States Attorney Joseph McNally in a statement. “Cartels and transnational criminal organizations cause immeasurable harm to our country. We are using every tool to eliminate these organizations and will prosecute those that do business with cartels.”

Del Villar is set to be sentenced during an Aug. 15 hearing where Del Villar faces a maximum of 30 years in federal prison for each count. Meanwhile, Del Entertainment faces five years probation and a fine of $10 million.

An attorney for Dell Villar did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.

During opening remarks of the case, Del Villar watched as prosecutors said that Del Records’ former top artist, Gerardo Ortiz, had already pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in the case and would be testifying against Del Villar. According to prosecutors, 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 shows organized by Perez. Prosecutors claimed Ortiz initially planned to stop playing shows for Pérez but was persuaded by Del Villar to keep appearing.

Gerardo Ortiz parted ways with Del Records in 2019 amid a contract dispute. In a statement after the start of a trial, a lawyer for Ortiz told Rolling Stone that 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,” lawyer Mark Werksman said earlier this month. “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.”