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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2008 
Reputed Drug Queen Says Mexican Prosecutors Trumped Up Charges to Please U.S.
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
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Mexico City – A reputed drug queen wanted on a U.S. extradition request claims she was framed by Mexican authorities eager to please the U.S. government.
Sandra Avila Beltran said prosecutors unfairly linked her to the drug trade based on her alleged romantic involvement with suspected Colombian trafficker Juan Diego Espinoza Ramirez, according to an interview published Monday in the Mexican newspaper El Universal.
“When they detain male traffickers, they don't take into account all their girlfriends. They take into account what they have done,” Avila said from prison, where she is awaiting trial on charges of organized crime, money-laundering and conspiracy to traffic drugs.
Federal prosecutors refused to comment on Avila's allegations, made in her first extensive interview since her September arrest.
Avila claimed that Mexican prosecutors invented both the charges that she operated Pacific Ocean drug routes and her nickname, “The Queen of the Pacific.”
“They want me to be their creation in order to curry favor with the United States in their supposed fight against drug trafficking,” she said.
The U.S. request to extradite Avila on drug and organized crime charges alleges she was a senior decision-maker for the Sinaloa cartel. Her imprisoned uncle Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo is considered “the godfather” of Mexican drug smuggling, but she has said she made her money selling clothes and renting houses. |
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