Jacob Diaz

I got introduced to Barbie at the wedding.

According to Diaz, the drug lord was someone serious.

Dangerous.

Much more dangerous than Aviles.

Once he learned I was an American, though, he was actually kind of friendly, Diaz grinned.

I think he liked being around another gringo.

That evening, Diaz, Aviles, and JJ accompanied Valdez Villarreal and his entourage to the nightclubs Palladium and Mandara.

Walking into a club with Barbie was like being out with the president.

People were tripping over themselves to serve us.

The owners cleaned out entire sections of the clubs so that Valdez Villarreal could have a private area to party.

Later, he took the group to Privado, an after-hours club that stayed open all night.

The women there were expensive prostitutes, every one of them more beautiful than the next.

Valdez Villarreal arranged for 20 of the women to provide entertainment.

By then, says Diaz, we had been out all night.

There was booze and girls.

Once Barbie and his friends started switching off and doing all kinds of crazy stuff, that's when I knew I had to get out of there.

The situation was out of control.

According to Diaz, these guys lived their lives as if every day was going to be their last.

And for many of them, it was.

One week later, the Sinaloa cartel's enforcers threw severed heads into an Acapulco nightclub as a warning to the Zetas to keep their operatives out of Federation territory.