Del Records CEO Ángel del Villar Wants to Stay Out Of Prison While He Appeals Cartel Convictions

Music executive Ángel Del Villar is asking a judge to let him stay out of prison while he appeals his felony convictions for doing business with a concert promoter linked to Mexican drug cartels.

With a four-year prison sentence set to start on Dec. 1, attorneys for Del Villar argue that his appeal could very well overturn his March convictions – and that he should remain a free man until a higher court rules on his case.

“Del Villar has demonstrated since this case began that he is not a flight risk,” his lawyers wrote in a Wednesday court filing. “He poses no danger to the community. And he intends to present substantial questions on appeal that, if resolved in his favor, are likely to result in reversal or a new trial on all counts.”

Del Villar, who built his Del Records into a top record label for regional Mexican music, was convicted in March of violating the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act by repeatedly arranging concerts with Jesus Pérez Alvear, a Guadalajara-based promoter with cartel ties. In August, he was sentenced to 48 months in prison on those convictions.

In addition to seeking to halt the imposition of that sentence, Wednesday’s filing serves as a preview of how Del Villar’s attorneys plan to mount his appeal of the underlying convictions.

They say they have a particularly strong argument on how the judge instructed jurors that they could convict Del Villar by finding that he willfully blinded himself to Pérez’s shady connections. They say prosecutors couldn’t prove he took concrete actions to avoid such knowledge, but that the judge gave the jurors that option anyway.

“The government pointed to no evidence — and the record contains none —  from which a jury could conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Del Villar took ‘deliberate actions’ or made ‘active efforts,’ his lawyers wrote, later adding that the judge’s instruction “went to the heart and most hotly contested aspect of the case.”

If that argument is successful, Del Villar’s lawyers say, it will “produce a new trial on all counts of conviction,” since each count required proof of such knowledge.

Del Records, founded by Del Villar in 2008, was home to música mexicana supergroup Eslabon Armado, whose global hit, “Ella Baila Sola” with Peso Pluma, became one of the biggest songs of 2023, as well as Lenin Ramirez and other chart-topping artists.

But in June 2022, federal prosecutors unveiled charges against Del Villar, 41, CFO Luca Scalisi, 56, and Del Records itself under the Kingpin Act. The 1999 statute allows the U.S. to impose targeted sanctions on foreign individuals involved in the illegal drug trade, and then to ban U.S. residents from doing business with them.

Pérez was added to the sanctions list in 2018 after the feds said he had helped cartels “exploit the Mexican music industry to launder drug proceeds and glorify their criminal activities.” Del Villar and Scalisi nonetheless allegedly used Pérez to arrange four Mexican concerts for an undisclosed Del Records artist and accepted nearly $200,000 from him, all while aware that he had been sanctioned.

At a March trial, superstar Gerardo Ortiz took the stand to testify against Del Villar, saying he had seen Pérez Alvear at the Del Records offices and had himself performed at one of the promoter’s concerts. Del Villar’s defense attorneys argued back that he had been “manipulated” into working with Pérez Alvear by a “trusted” former employee. But the jury didn’t buy it, finding him guilty on 10 counts of violating the Kingpin law, as well as one conspiracy charge.