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| Soldiers inspect an apartment complex in Cuernavaca, where Arturo Beltrán Leyva died (December 2009). |
For ten years of her life, Celeste was a confidant and romantic partner of the drug trafficker Arturo Beltrán Leyva, living in the heart of the criminal world of the Beltrán Leyva when they were part of the Sinaloa Cartel and when a brutal war divided them. Thus, she was a firsthand witness to how the criminal system operates in Mexico, a modus operandi that is still in place today and can only be portrayed with clarity, rawness, and without censorship by an insider.
Celeste, as a witness, reveals the inner workings of the criminal world and goes even further. For the first time, through an intense and relentless interview, she opens the door to the psyche of one of the most powerful drug traffickers in Mexico in recent times, whose criminal legacy and network of complicity continue to wreak havoc in the country.
I verified the veracity of her testimony for several months with judicial documents from the governments of Mexico and the United States, public property records, as well as judicial testimonies and those of other witnesses to the events. In this way, with Celeste’s testimony, I was able to paint an intimate portrait of the depths of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel and discover that many of its operators and accomplices still hold sway, influence, and power in Mexico today.
“Bribing” Public Servants and Women
The book exposes two phenomena that explain how Arturo Beltrán Leyva, also known as “El Barbas” and “Boss of Bosses,” became one of the wealthiest and most powerful drug traffickers within the Sinaloa Cartel, on par with his cousin Joaquín Guzmán Loera, “El Chapo”: the system of corruption to co-opt public officials and the system of corruption to enlist women to accompany the drug lord.
With a monthly income of at least $400 million from global drug trafficking profits, “El Barbas” would buy off public officials, paying them millions of dollars for protection, which was essential for his criminal enterprises. With another portion of his earnings, he would acquire the company of women, primarily women from the entertainment industry, essential not only to provide him pleasure but also to feed his ego and dominance within the criminal organization—they were his oxygen, his reward, and his reason for being.
Celeste asserts that Arturo Beltrán Leyva had no respect for the law or Mexican public officials, and he would “bribe” them, just like the women he paid for companionship.
Since its publication, the new book has sparked debate and controversy. Here are some of the uncomfortable revelations:
Brother of the Deputy Secretary of National Defense Accused of Collaborating with the Beltrán Leyva
General Agustín Radilla Suástegui held the important position of Deputy Secretary of National Defense from September 2021 to September 2023. He was appointed to the position directly by the head of the National Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, and left the position upon retiring. He had previously served as the chief officer of the National Defense Secretariat and as commander of the 30th Military Zone in Tabasco, the home state and political influence zone of Andrés Manuel López Obrador during Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration.
Since 2010, his brother, Pedro Radilla Suástegui, has been implicated in an investigation by the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico (now the Attorney General’s Office) as one of the officials in the state of Guerrero complicit with the Beltrán Leyva. According to a protected witness of the Attorney General’s Office who worked for the Beltrán Leyva Cartel in 2007, when Zeferino Torreblanca was the governor of Guerrero, Pedro Radilla Suástegui was his head of security, and through him, the drug trafficker sent threats and warnings to Governor Torreblanca.
Arturo Beltrán Leyva personally boarded Zeferino Torreblanca’s car and said to him, “It’s very simple, either you take a million or you take lead. You will tell me,” Celeste narrated in the testimony she provided.
This assertion made in January 2022 is confirmed by the content of the AP PGR/SIEDO/UEDICS/112/ 2010 case file. The witness from the Attorney General’s Office stated, “I know that in early August 2007, I was in the city and port of Acapulco, in one of Arturo Beltrán Leyva’s safe houses in the Las Brisas neighborhood. There, around 9:00 PM, I remember it was a Friday, the head of Zeferino Torreblanca’s security detail arrived at the house, surnamed Radilla Suástegui, and he privately talked with the drug lord Arturo Beltrán Leyva for about an hour before leaving.
Upon leaving, Radilla Suástegui greeted several members of Arturo Beltrán’s security detail, including Roberto, alias El R (Roberto Acosta Islas), personal secretary and accountant of Arturo Beltrán Leyva. I remember Roberto saying to Radilla, ‘Tell the damn governor not to mess around, to be at the boss’s service, because if he doesn’t, he’ll get himself killed,’ and Radilla replied in a low voice, ‘Don’t worry, sir, I’m on it.’ Then, R bid him farewell, saying, ‘Come on, buddy, we’re watching.’ After that, on the same day, when talking to Edgar Valdez Villarreal, he told me that several times Beltrán Leyva’s hitmen had stopped the governor’s car while he was traveling on the road from Acapulco to Chilpancingo, and they had stopped him several times to force him to cooperate with the cartel and serve them.”
That concludes the testimony given to the Attorney General’s Office. Years later, in 2019, Pedro Radilla Suastegui became the State Coordinator in Guerrero for the Federal Police, the same agency he had allegedly collaborated with for organized crime, according to the Attorney General’s Office’s case file.
Salvador Cienfuegos
Controversial General Salvador Cienfuegos is another powerful figure mentioned by Celeste in her testimony. The military officer was the commander of the IX military region, located in Acapulco, Guerrero, from 2005 to 2007 when the bay was one of the main strongholds of the Arturo Beltrán Leyva criminal group.
“General Cienfuegos was with Arturo,” Celeste asserted. “Once, during one of our gatherings at the OXXO that Arturo always went to, he [Cienfuegos] was there, having coffee and talking to Arturo. They had a very close relationship.”
Published September 18, 2023
Title: The Narco Ladies: Uncomfortable Revelations