1 case tagged “Norte del Valle Cartel”
Convicted: Sandra Ávila Beltrán
When federal agents swarmed a Mexico City restaurant on September 28, 2007, and placed Sandra Ávila Beltrán under arrest, she did not flinch. She smiled. Then she asked if she could freshen her makeup before the cameras filmed her. It was the kind of composure that takes a lifetime to cultivate, and Sandra's lifetime had been extraordinary preparation. Born into one of Mexico's most storied narco dynasties, niece of Guadalajara Cartel godfather Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, she had watched the drug trade operate from her cradle. She had buried two husbands, both former police commanders turned traffickers, both killed by hired assassins. She had allegedly coordinated a 9.5-ton cocaine shipment and paid millions in ransom when her own son was kidnapped. By the time the agents clicked the handcuffs, she had already become a legend: La Reina del Pacífico. The Queen of the Pacific. What followed her arrest was almost as astonishing as the life that preceded it. This is the true story of the most glamorous and dangerous woman in the history of the Mexican drug war.
