Mexico's "Queen of the Pacific" Sentenced

Published: 29 July 2013

By

Sandra Avila Beltran, or the “Queen of the Pacific”, was sentenced by a US court to 70 months in prison for obstruction of justice, the BBC reported Friday.

Beltran was extradited to the US in August 2012 to face cocaine smuggling charges after being arrested in Mexico City in 2007 and spending five years in a Mexican prison. In April, she admitted to helping ex-Colombian drug kingpin Juan Diego Espinosa Ramirez, her former boyfriend known as “the Tiger”, dodge prosecution on cocaine smuggling charges.

U.S. District Judge Michael Moore of Miami sentenced Beltran slightly more than the 68 months she has already served, plus one year supervised release. Her attorney, Howard J. Schumacher, said that immigration authorities will probably deport Beltran to Mexico sooner than keeping her waiting deportation in an immigration detention center for a year, the Miami Herald reported Friday.

Her attorneys said that while no warrants are out for Beltran’s arrest in Mexico, they cannot predict the actions of Mexican authorities upon her return.

Mexican police allege she has close ties to infamous drug kingpins, such as her uncle Miguel Felix Gallardo, known as “the Godfather” who founded the Guadalajara cartel and is serving a 40-year prison term in Mexico on drug-related crimes.