The dark side of the legend of Joan Sebastian: he sang to love, but the shadow of the narco always chased him

This April 8th, the birth of José Manuel Figueroa, better known as Joan Sebastian, is celebrated, one of the most recognized Mexican regional music singers in history. The composer and actor, winner of 12 Grammy Awards and the affection of the public, has a very dark side that is rarely mentioned.

It is no secret that there are various exponents of band music that have demonstrated the close relationship they have with organized crime, such as Jenni Rivera, Valentín Elizalde, Sergio Gómez and the “King of Jaripeo” himself.

The interpreter of Tattoos he was part of great scandals over ten years that put him in the crosshairs not only from the media, but also from the government itself.

It was in 2004 when his name was related to the drug trafficker for the first time. Supposedly, on that occasion a list of names written after the arrest of Marco Enrique Yépez Uribe, alias El Jarocho, a former state policeman and alleged member of the Juárez cartel, threw up the singer’s name.

According to the document, A ranch in Juliantla in the state of Guerrero was used to hide drugs that were trafficked from Colombia and that were transported to that place by the governor of Morelos, Sergio Estrada Cajigal, from a state airport.

Just a couple of years later, in 2006, his son Trigo Figueroa was allegedly shot to death while leaving his father’s concert in the United States. The media did not take long to link this fact with the singer’s background.

In 2010, four years later, Juan Sebastián Figueroa, another of Joan’s sons, was murdered in cold blood after a night of drinking from the bar The Gran Hotel in Cuernavaca, Morelos. In this regard, a rumor circulated that the crime had been committed by members of the South Pacific Cartel.

The singer came out to clarify the situation that same year through a press conference at the Cruz de la Sierra ranch. “What if the murder of my son was a reckoning for the bullshit that had already been said about me”he told the media.

“If the army came, they could tell that I have 500 armed men. I bring 500 men or more armed with picks, shovels, machetes; I bring men armed with hammer and chisel chipping stone, carving out a dream “, he also clarified.

During the investigations that began in 2015 to Edgar Valdez Villareal, alias Barbie, one of the bloodiest drug traffickers in the history of Mexico, Two testimonies emerged from women victims of trafficking who pointed out the singer for having hired them in 2009, when they were both minors.

According to an investigation by the Mexican Prosecutor’s Office taken up by the journalist Héctor Mauleón, the minors, who were 12 and 16 years old, were kidnapped, forced to work in a brothel and attend private parties where they were abused by drug traffickers.

The victims pointed out that The village poet was present in several events of the style and that they even got to organize in a ranch of the singer, where Barbie he was one of the most important guests.

The testimonies pointed out that the composer of Love’s Secret He bought them gold accessories, in addition to promising to take care of them while they were exploited in a brothel in Taxco in the state of Guerrero.

Along with the other men present, in addition They were forced to drink with them and dance on the dance floors, and that the singer selected the young women through the photos that their captors showed them. The government never launched an investigation into the famous actor.

On the other hand, shortly before his death, his brother, Federico Figueroa, was identified by two drug dealers along with Mario Casarrubias and Noé Reynoso in Morelos as the culprit of the violence in the state, since the territory was in dispute between the group Guerreros Unidos, to which Los Rojos and the Family supposedly belonged.

In 2019, A strong video emerged of a cold-blooded execution of a man, who would later be revealed to be Hugo Figueroa, El Rey del Jaripeo’s nephew, after being kidnapped for at least a week. The reason for the murder was never made clear.