Alleged Pacific Drug Cartel Queen Avila Beltrán Freed From A U.S. Federal Prison

Sandra Avila Beltrán

Avila Beltrán will be deported to Mexico where she is facing additional charges for using elicit drug money to operate a criminal organization, according to her attorney in Mexico.

By H. Nelson Goodson

July 29, 2013

Miami, FL - On Monday, a U.S. District Court of Southern Florida judge decided that Sandra Avila Beltrán, 52, aka, "Pacific Drug Cartel Queen" has served her time and ordered her release. Avila Beltrán was extradited to the U.S. in August and pled guilty to a plea agreement with federal prosecutors for harbouring her boyfriend, a convicted drug dealer.

The Milenio Newspaper reported that Avila Beltrán's Mexican attorney Jorge Alfonso Espino Santillan had said, Mexican federal authorities are expected to arrest his client for using drug money to operate an alleged criminal organization once she returns to Mexico. Mexican federal prosecutors have filed charges in a federal court in the state of Jalisco, according Santillan.
She is facing charges for using elicit drug money to buy multiple million dollar life insurance policies and at least three properties, the Milenio reported.
Avila Beltrán was previously indicted in the U.S. for alleged charges of organized crime and importing large quantities of cocaine to the U.S. for distribution. She was wanted in the U.S. for importing at least 9.6 tons of cocaine in 2001.

She was arrested in Mexico City in 2007 for organized crime and drug trafficking, but was acquitted in 2010 by a Mexican federal judge.

In 2001, she paid several million dollars in ransom for her son's release after he was kidnapped in Mexico drawing attention to the ransom playoff by Mexican federal authorities. 

Avila Beltrán also paid to have a cosmetic doctor perform botox treatments while she was incarcerated.

Avila Betrán was considered ruthless for her tactics used against rival drug cartel members. She is the niece of Miguel Angel Félix Gallardo, who is now serving a 40 year sentence in the U.S. for the homicide of a U.S. DEA agent in 1984.

In January 2010, her great uncle Juan José Quintero Payán, 69, was extradited to the U.S. for drug trafficing, using drug money to invest in U.S. real estate and laundering money, according to a federal indictment. 

In December 2011, Payán who was the founder of the Juarez Cartel was sentenced to 18 years in prison and fined $250,000 by a federal judge in San Antonio, Texas.