Fri Dec 06 16:30:00 UTC 2024: ## Prominent Mexican Music Promoter, Linked to Drug Cartel, Gunned Down in Upscale Mexico City Restaurant

**Mexico City, Mexico** – Jesús Pérez Alvear, known as “Chucho,” a 40-year-old music promoter with ties to major regional Mexican artists like Julión Álvarez and Gerardo Ortiz, was fatally shot Wednesday in a restaurant in the upscale Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City. The attack, which lasted less than a minute, shocked the capital and highlighted the reach of narco-violence beyond Mexico’s interior states.

Pérez Alvear had been under investigation by US authorities for years, accused of money laundering for the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), one of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels. In 2018, the US Treasury Department placed him on its sanctions list, alleging he used his event-planning company, Gallística Diamante (also known as Ticket Premier), to launder money and fund the lavish lifestyles of CJNG leaders. The US claimed he facilitated this through the promotion of concerts, often featuring “narcocorridos”—ballads glorifying drug trafficking. His relationship with a relative of CJNG leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (“El Mencho”) further solidified these allegations.

Despite the US sanctions, Pérez Alvear continued promoting concerts for artists like Gerardo Ortiz, employing tactics to obscure his involvement and payments, including using shell companies and intermediaries. This included a high-profile 2018 concert featuring Ortiz in Aguascalientes, where efforts were made to conceal his dealings with the promoter, even after a direct FBI warning to Ortiz in Arizona.

In May 2023, Pérez Alvear pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in the US, facing a maximum sentence of 10 years and a significant fine. However, he was murdered before sentencing. Mexican authorities are investigating the assassination, exploring potential links to a previous attack against Mexico City Police Chief Omar García Harfuch in 2020. Two suspects fled the scene on a motorcycle. The investigation is ongoing. While the US investigation involved several individuals associated with Del Entertainment, Gerardo Ortiz was never charged.

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