The former girlfriend of a senior Colombian drug trafficker on Tuesday pleaded guilty to helping the member of Colombia’s Norte del Valle drug cartel evade arrest.
Sandra Avila Beltran, 52, who has been in prison since 2007 and was extradited to the United States in August, admitted to giving Espinosa money between 2002 and 2004 “with the intention of preventing or hindering his arrest for his drug trafficking crimes.”
Espinosa served as a key link between the Norte del Valle drug cartel in Colombia and Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. He was arrested in Mexico and extradited to the U.S. in 2007 and pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in 2009.
Avila reportedly played a key role in establishing the Mexican Sinaloa cartel in the 1990s and earned her nickname as the “queen of the Pacific” due to allegedly developing drug smuggling routes through Mexico’s pacific coast to California.
The Mexican is due to be sentenced on July 25 and faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $5 million.
Sources
- Sandra Avila Beltran, Mexican Cartel ‘Queen’ Pleads Guilty In Miami (The Huffington Post)
- Mexican drug cartel “queen” pleads guilty in Miami (Reuters)