Dramatic photos reveal the FBI dawn raid on the $4.5million waterfront home of Del Records music executive Jose Angel del Villar.
The pictures, exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, show dozens of SWAT team officers with automatic weapons and armored vehicles descending on the house in Huntington Beach, California, at around 6am Friday.
Villar is known for launching the careers of controversial Mexican narco music artists including Gerardo Ortiz. Narco music, also called narcocorrido or drug ballads, speaks approvingly of illegal happenings in the Mexican drug cartels.
The label chief’s offices in East Los Angeles were raided on the same day and also at two other unknown locations.
A video posted to YouTube shows a SWAT team surrounding the property, busting through the office front doors and storming the building with flash bang devices.
After the raid, Del Records released a statement claiming the dramatic move by the feds was part of a criminal investigation into Ortiz.
But Ortiz, who is currently in a bitter legal battle with his label, shot back saying he had nothing to do with the raid on Villar’s office and home, and claimed that Villar had ‘swindled’ him out of ‘many tens of millions of dollars’.
Photos obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com show a SWAT team lining up to raid the $4.5million home of Del Records music executive Jose Angel del Villar
Dozens of SWAT team officers with automatic weapons and armored vehicles were seen descending on the house in Huntington Beach, California, at around 6am Friday
Villar (left) is known for launching the careers of controversial Mexican narco music artists including Gerardo Ortiz (right), who is in a bitter legal battle with the label
A neighbor said the there was a boat as ‘backup’ on the water as the FBI threw concussion grenades into the house
A neighbor of Villar, who asked not to be named, said they were woken up to the sound of a police loudspeaker as more than 30 FBI SWAT team, plain clothes officers and Huntington Beach Police officers rolled into the rich, gated neighborhood on the waterfront
‘They were armed to the teeth with fully automatic M4s, 45-caliber backup weapons, their own medics. I saw them pull out of the house an articulated telescope that can go around corners,’ the neighbor told DailyMail.com
‘The mobilization was like Waco, Texas,’ he added, referring to the notorious 1993 law enforcement siege that turned violent. ‘This is too much firepower for a neighborhood’
FBI Special Agent Miguel Luna, speaking outside the Del Records offices Friday, said FBI task forces executed a search warrant in 6am dawn raids at four locations.
He also confirmed that the FBI entered the Del Records offices by smashing through the door, but reported that no incidents occurred inside.
Speaking in Spanish to Infinito Magazine, which has a YouTube channel, Special Agent Luna said: ‘The FBI executed four search warrants in different places in Los Angeles today. We executed them simultaneously. No one has been arrested.’
A neighbor of Villar, who asked not to be named, said they were woken up before 6am on Friday morning to the sound of a police loudspeaker as more than 30 FBI SWAT team, plain clothes officers and Huntington Beach Police officers rolled into the rich, gated neighborhood on the waterfront.
‘Suddenly two concussion grenades went off,’ said the witness. ‘They shook the house, woke up the whole neighborhood.
‘They had a boat as backup on the water, and they had 30 FBI soldiers storm the house. They threw concussion grenades into the house.
‘They had one armored vehicle, they had a utility one-ton truck with side running boards with soldiers on it, and then they had a suburban SUV. Each truck had 10 guys on it so there was 30 soldiers.
‘They were armed to the teeth with fully automatic M4s, 45-caliber backup weapons, their own medics. I saw them pull out of the house an articulated telescope that can go around corners.
‘The mobilization was like Waco, Texas,’ he added, referring to the notorious 1993 law enforcement siege that turned violent. ‘This is too much firepower for a neighborhood.’
A neighbor said the raid was ‘botched’ as Villar and his family had moved out of the $4.5million home the previous weekend
Villar bought the four-bedroom house, which has views across the water of Huntington Harbor, in October 2017 for $3,980,000
‘Their intelligence was so bad,’ the source said. ‘Villar moved out his family four days prior, last weekend. They had started remodeling with construction in the house. So they did all this armament of 30 FBI soldiers and 15 plain clothes FBI for nothing’
The record label chief appeared undeterred by the heavily armed raid, and was spotted hosting a Memorial Day party with about 15 friends and family in his back yard three days later
The neighbor said a heavily-armed FBI raid was the last thing he expected to see in the gated community, where house prices now range from $4million to $8million
The neighbor said the FBI operation was a week too late, as Villar and his family had moved out of the home the previous weekend, while construction workers had gutted the property ready for a remodel last week.
‘This was a total botched raid,’ the source said. ‘Their intelligence was so bad. Villar moved out his family four days prior, last weekend. They had started remodeling with construction in the house. So they did all this armament of 30 FBI soldiers and 15 plain clothes FBI for nothing.’
Villar himself turned up two hours later, according to the neighbor, and was served a search warrant but not arrested.
The record label chief appeared undeterred by the heavily armed raid, and was spotted hosting a Memorial Day party with about 15 friends and family in his back yard three days later.
Villar bought the four-bedroom house, which has views across the water of Huntington Harbor, in October 2017 for $3,980,000.
The neighbor said a heavily-armed FBI raid was the last thing he expected to see in the gated community, where house prices now range from $4million to $8million.
‘My neighborhood’s not poor people. There’s people with multiple houses. There’s a guy with two jets in my neighborhood, they’re ballers,’ he told DailyMail.com.
The label chief’s offices in East Los Angeles and two other locations were raided on the same day
The FBI entered the Del Records offices by smashing through the door, but reported that no incidents occurred inside
Dozens of SWAT officers were also caught on camera busting into his Del Records HQ in Bell Gardens, East Los Angeles on Friday and using flash bang grenades.
Villar posted a statement on Instagram claiming he was merely cooperating with an investigation into one of the stars formerly signed to his label, Gerardo Ortiz.
Villar posted a statement on Instagram claiming he was merely cooperating with an investigation into one of the stars formerly signed to his label, Gerardo Ortiz
‘We are able to confirm that the Federal Bureau of Investigation came to the offices of Del Records today and took a number of materials that we understand relate to the FBI’s investigation of our former artist, Gerardo Ortiz,’ the statement said.
‘To the best of our knowledge, Del Records is not a subject, but merely a source of information for the FBI’s investigation into Mr. Ortiz. We have cooperated fully with the FBI and will continue to do so.’
Ortiz shot back that he had nothing to do with the raids.
‘Today we learned the offices of Del Records and Del Entertainment Inc. were searched by the FBI, as well as the home of its owner, Jose Angel Del Villar, pursuant to a federally issued search warrant,’ his spokesperson said.
‘Gerardo Ortiz currently has a lawsuit pending before the Los Angeles Superior Court and the California Labor Commissioner against the Del companies for alleged fraudulent conduct, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and violation of the Talent Agencies Act for swindling Mr. Ortiz out of many tens of millions of dollars.
‘To our knowledge the search by the FBI at Del Records office and Mr. Del Villar’s home does not involve Mr. Ortiz.’
Ortiz, 30, is the head of his own label, Badsin Entertainment, based in Tustin, Orange County.
After signing with Del Records in 2009, he released 10 albums and became a chart-topping star with his Mexican narco music.
Ortiz, who is currently in a bitter legal battle with his label, shot back saying he had nothing to do with the raid on Villar’s office and home, and claimed that Villar had ‘swindled’ him out of ‘many tens of millions of dollars’
Del Records said in a statement that the dramatic raid was part of a criminal investigation into Ortiz
Ortiz was arrested by Mexican police at Guadalajara Airport in 2016 for allegedly inciting violence with his music video Fuiste Mia (You Were Mine), which showed him shutting his girlfriend in the trunk of a car and setting the vehicle on fire.
Del Records sued their former top-billing artist last year for allegedly reneging on an agreement to perform shows.
In the court case, the label claimed Ortiz insisted on being paid for performances in cash to evade taxes, and that Del Records once loaned him money to pay his back taxes after he got into trouble with the IRS.
The court documents also claim Ortiz performed a show in Mexico for an alleged trafficker, which drew the attention of the US government.
Ortiz then filed his own lawsuit against Del Records the same year, claiming the label underpaid him by millions of dollars and failed to account for hundreds of shows by using fraudulent accounting practices, and that he refused to play shows for the label because they booked them without his authorization.
In a Labor Commissioner complaint filed last August, Ortiz accused Del Records of making ‘secret profits’ and having a conflict of interest by acting as both his manager and his publisher.
Ortiz’s complaint slammed his former label boss Villar as ‘secretive, condescending, abusive and evasive.’
‘Villar would unilaterally decide what Ortiz and the other acts would be paid,’ the court documents said. ‘Villar would then pocket the difference from what was paid to the acts, making a profit from the amount of which was never disclosed. In other words, Villar consistently made secret profits.’