On April 23 of this year, Sandra Ávila Beltrán, after having been extradited to the United States and accused of conspiring to import and distribute cocaine throughout the country from 1999-2004, was absolved of all charges except one: having helped her boyfriend Juan Diego Espinosa evade capture by authorities. This Wednesday, Beltrán faced sentencing from US federal judge Michael Moore, who handed down a prison term of 70 months, or five years and eight months. Upon hearing the decision, she smiled and hugged her lawyer. Sunday, July 28, will be her last day in prison.
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"It is 70 months counting from 28 September 2007, when she was arrested in Mexico, therefore she could be set free on the next weekend," the lawyer, Steven Ralls, told reporters afterward.
"The time on her sentence has already been done. Now she's going to pass into the custody of immigration and then she will be deported to Mexico," Rails told El Pais.
El Pais wrote that Beltrán emerged from the courtroom with her chin up and greeted those waiting outside with a smile. Her lawyer said that his client was "pleased" with the sentence but that it also "made her said, because she had to spend six years proving her innocence".
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Beltrán was dubbed the "Queen of the Pacific" for her role as a leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, which in the 1990s asserted itself as one of the most powerful in Mexico by using ports in the country's Pacific coast state of Colima to ship drugs into the United States. Her boyfriend Juan Diego Espinosa, known as "the Tiger", was a leader of the Sinaloa cartel, but also had links to the Valle del Norte cartel in Colombia, his homeland. Beltrán also comes from a family with links to drug traffickers - she is the niece of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and more distantly related to Rafael Caro Quintero, both of whom were co-founders of the Guadalajara cartel, one of the biggest organized crime groups in Mexico during the 1980s.
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In reaction to the news, Mexican authorities have announced that they will not take action against Beltrán when she re-enters Mexico, as she currently has no investigation open against her or arrest warrant pending.
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