Sandra "La Reina del Pacifico" Avila Beltran (born 16 October 1960) was a Mexican drug lord and an associate of both the Sinaloa Cartel and the Norte del Valle Cartel. She was nicknamed "The Queen of the Pacific" for presiding over a Latin American drug empire, and she was arrested in 2007 and released in 2015.
Biography[]
Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo and Sandra, 1984
Sandra Avila Beltran was born in Baja California, Mexico in 1960, a paternal relative of Emilio Quintero Payan and Rafael Caro Quintero and a maternal relative of Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo and the Beltran Leyva family. She had affairs with several well-known drug barons in her youth and married two police commanders-turned-drug traffickers who were both killed by hired assassins. She became a socialite within the Mexican drug underworld, and she formed connections with Juan Matta-Ballesteros and Alberto Sicilia Falcon, as well as with her relatives. Miguel Angel resisted her advances, and, while he employed her as a business representative during his 1984 meeting with the heads of the Cali Cartel and in his attempt to end his war with Sicilia Falcon that same year, he refused to give her the 20% of Tijuana that he promised her as a reward. At a conference of Felix's plaza bosses, Felix passed over Avila to give Tijuana to the Arellano Felix brothers without delivering on his promise, causing her to turn against him and seek partnerships elsewhere. Her offer of partnership was rejected by the Arellano Felix brothers, but the Colombian Norte del Valle Cartel boss Orlando Henao Montoya decided to supply her with 200 kilograms of cocaine to move into the USA herself.
Co-boss of Tijuana[]
Avila Beltran with Enedina Arellano Felix in Colombia, 1987
Avila Beltran later became a junior partner in Enedina Arellano Felix's cross-border drug trafficking operation, working with Henao Montoya to smuggle Colombian cocaine into the United States. Using Enedina's guest worker visa business as a front, the two women created an army of drug mules who easily trafficked the 200 kilograms into the United States, and Avila later introduced Enedina to Henao when she went on her next trip to Colombia. At that meeting, she demanded that Henao send them 700 kilograms of cocaine next time, and he agreed to do so within two weeks. He then negotiated that he become their sole supplier, as the Cali Cartel had made Juan Nepomuceno Guerra their sole trafficker and thus had the benefit of exclusivity. Avila agreed to make Henao her only supplier in exchange for 10% off for all shipments of above 400 kilograms, and she and Enedina proceeded to expand their business with the help of the new shipment.
Downfall[]
Avila's arrest
When Benjamin and Ramon Arellano Felix formed their own Tijuana Cartel on Guadalajara's disintegration in 1989, Enedina chose to join her siblings and offer Avila a bribe of $6 million to leave Tijuana, but Avila refused and decided to smuggle cocaine on her own. Enedina retaliated by sending corrupt police to arrest her, temporarily halting her operation. She later became a major fixer for deals between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Norte del Valle Cartel, and she was arrested in Mexico City on 28 September 2007 for money laundering and was released in 2015. Avila went on to settle in Guadalajara following her release.
Gallery[]
