Reportar MensajeSinger and reality star Jenni Rivera had ties to one of Mexico's most notorious drug cartels before she was killed last month in a plane crash, a shocking report has claimed. A witness reportedly came forward with claims that the Mexican-American performer, known as 'La Diva de la Banda,' was connected to the Beltran-Leyva cartel, which is regarded as one of the country's most feared criminal syndicates. The report by the Reforma newspaper also accused Rivera of performing at private events for the cartel and its one-time boss, Edgar 'La Barbie' Valdez, who was arrested in 2010. In one instance, La Barbie mortified Rivera when he kicked her as part of a practical joke, according to Reforma. The witness statements made in 2009, also alleged that Rivera used cocaine and ecstasy. The capture of Valdez - a Texas-born drug kingpin who got his nickname from his fair complexion - was seen as a major coup in the government's desperate battle against drug traffickers. Before he was caught, Valdez had been battling for control of the cartel after its leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed in a 2009 December shootout with marines in Cuernavaca, a favorite weekend getaway south of Mexico City.
Also today, family members of the other plane crash casualties filed a lawsuit against the jet's owners for 'negligence' in letting the plane take off. TMZ reported that the family of Rivera's publicist Arturo Rivera, her lawyer Mario Macias Pacheco, Her stylist Jorge Armando Sanchez Vasquez and her makeup artist Jacobo Yebale filed the wrongful death suit against Starwood Management. A similar lawsuit has also been filed against Rivera's company. Rivera was in the process of buying the doomed private jet from business executive Christian E. Esquino Nunez, who owns Starwood. Nunez is wanted for questioning regarding his ties to the plane, and has been convicted of drug-trafficking and counterfeiting government inspection stamps. RadarOnline.com reports that Nunez also has ties to a Tijuana drug cartel, and has also been accused of trying to sneak the son of late Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi into Mexico. Court records show that Nunez obtained details from aircrafts and forged details so as to mark up aircraft prices, thinking the models had fewer miles on them or had more maintenance work than they actually had. Nunez’s current whereabouts are unknown.
The plane carrying the superstar plunged from more than 28,000 feet and hit the ground in a nose-dive at more than 600 miles an hour, Mexico's top transportation official says. Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, Mexico's secretary of communications and transportation, revealed the first detailed accounts of the moments leading up to the crash that killed Rivera and six other people aboard their Learjet on Sunday in northern Mexico. According to Ruiz Esparza told Radio Formula the plane hit the ground 1.2 miles from where it began falling, and plummeted at a 45 degree angle. 'The plane practically nose-dived,' he said. 'The impact must have been terrible.' Ruiz Esparza did not offer any explanation of what may have caused the plane to plummet, saying only that 'The plane fell from an altitude of 28,000 feet ... It may have hit a speed higher than 1,000 kph (621 mph).'
