A victory for & # 039; the Queen of the Pacific & # 039 ;: court orders to defrost the accounts of Sandra Ávila Beltrán

Sandra Ávila Beltrán, better known as 'The Queen of the Pacific' , won a legal victory on January 16 when a collegiate court in Mexico City ordered to unfreeze eight bank accounts of her property that were insured by the authorities since August 7, 2002

“The Justice of the Union protects and protects the complainant Sandra Ávila Beltrán, with respect to the acts claimed from the recurring ministerial bodies,” establishes the sentence that was reviewed by Telemundo News.

Ávila Beltrán was arrested on September 28, 2007 on charges of being a key piece of the Sinaloa cartel for sending cocaine shipments to the United States. However, 'The Queen of the Pacific' has won several appeals against the accusations made by the Mexican authorities during the six-year term of Felipe Calderón, among others, two charges for operations with resources of illicit origin and one for organized crime.

In addition, in 2010 a judge determined that there were not enough elements to relate it to the operations of the Sinaloa cartel and in 2012 he was extradited to the United States, where he faced a trial by criminal association, conspiracy to own 100 kilos of cocaine and accusations of importing various Narcotic shipments.

Ávila Beltrán negotiated these charges and pleaded guilty to financially assist her sentimental partner Juan Diego Espinoza "El Tigre", operator of the North Valley cartel in Colombia.

That is why she was sentenced to 70 months in prison that she served until August 20, 2013, when she returned deported to Mexico where she was admitted to the Nayarit prison. There he served a five-year sentence for money laundering, but a judge ruled that he had been prosecuted for the same crime in Mexico and the United States for which he was released in February 2015.

The 50-page court document establishes “the return of the money contained in those accounts, and if applicable, their respective returns”, which means that Ávila Beltrán will enjoy the money she had in the eight accounts that are distributed among four banks Mexicans

"There is a clear message of impunity , we continue to operate our life our life under the blanket of organized crime works and we get ahead of any major problem," explains security expert Carlos Ulloa.

The ruling refers to the most important judicial case that was charged in Mexico for a shipment of 9.5 tons of cocaine insured on December 20, 2001 on the Macel vessel, off the coast of Colima, but in August 2011 it was acquitted in that case.

The document also mentions that, in July 2002, a woman was arrested at the Mexico City International Airport that carried “a little less than a million and a half dollars, ” and who said she managed “a business” in the city of Guadalajara that was owned by Ávila Beltrán, which prompted the investigations against him.

Another element highlighted in the judgment is that in September 2003, Ávila Beltrán made a payment of “approximately one hundred eighty-six thousand dollars in cash (…) for the annual premium of his life insurance with a value of one million dollars. dollars and two other insurances ”, an action that was also registered by the authorities.

Ávila Beltrán became a very popular figure that inspired two books ("The Queen of the Pacific", by Julio Scherer García and "La Reina del Sur" by Arturo Pérez-Reverte) and several narcocorridos. He has always rejected all the accusations against him, and denies being a relative of famous Mexican capos like Félix Gallardo and Emilio Quintero Payán.

Sandra Ávila Beltrán retakes control of her eight accounts with the money they had and the returns they have produced since August 2002. Photo: courtesy of Sandra Ávila Beltrán

However, he admits that he met various drug trafficking leaders such as Joaquín "el Chapo" Guzmán, Ismael "el Mayo" Zambada, Amado Carrillo Fuentes and the Arellano Félix brothers. "The government relates me to the bosses, as if I were one of them. But I met them when they were ordinary people," he told Scherer in his book.

His arrest was made during the government of Felipe Calderón and is considered as one of the operations that triggered the war on drug trafficking that was undertaken by the Mexican authorities and whose balance, in 2016, was estimated at more than 100,000 dead and about 30,000 missing .