Mexico Arrests Top Female Suspected Drug Trafficker

Mexico’s highest-profile female suspected drug trafficker and her Colombian drug boss lover were arrested Friday by federal agents in Mexico City, the government said.

Sandra Avila Beltran, dubbed the Queen of the Pacific and reputed to play a key role in shipping cocaine from Colombia to Mexico for the Sinaloa cartel, was arrested outside a restaurant in the capital’s south, Assistant Public Safety Secretary Patricio Patino said.

Avila Beltran, 45, was in charge of the cartel’s “public relations” and facilitated the movement of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, including nine tons confiscated from a ship in Manzanillo in 2002, Patino told a news conference. He said there is a U.S. order for her extradition. Hours after Avila Beltran’s arrest, police detained her lover, Juan Diego Espinoza Ramirez, an alleged top Colombian drug trafficker also wanted by U.S. authorities.

Patino said Espinoza Ramirez, 39, was the second in command in the Colombian Norte del Valle cartel, whose leader Diego Montoya was arrested in Colombia earlier this month.