Gorgeous but deadly Sandra Avila Beltran grew up surrounded by piles of cash in
a drug lord’s household. She was one of the few women who made it to the top and managed
to keep their place in the upper echelons of the Mexican drug world since the late 1970s.
She lived, worked, and loved to make a name as a drug trafficker and proudly owns her moniker
“The Queen of the Pacific” or "La Reina Del Pacífico". Welcome to Nutty history
and today we will be exploring the untold story of the woman who became the face and
voice of Mexican drug trafficking, Sandra Avila Beltran, The Queen of The Pacific.
Avila was only 13 years old when she witnessed her first shootout.
It was cartel meets Hollywood as it could be. People walked down the streets with weapons
hunting their targets as musicians followed them playing songs at dawn. According to Avila,
the music at sunrise meant someone was going to die. For a time, Avila had no intention to
join the family business. While she was still in high school, her childhood friends were rising
through the ranks of the Sinaloa Cartel but she wanted to be a journalist. At the age of 21,
she was pursuing a degree in communications at Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara when a jealous
ex-boyfriend kidnapped her. Like her family, her ex was also a powerful member of the cartel.
The incident changed her perspective on life and after being rescued, she abandoned the dream
of becoming an investigative journalist. Within months, Avila left town and entered the underworld
to become a drug trafficker like everyone else in her family. It was pretty much in her blood, she
was a third-generation drug trafficker, and not just any trafficker, she was an heir to an empire.
It wouldn't be wrong to say that Avila was born into Narco Royalty to María Luisa Beltrán Félix
and Alfonso Ávila Quintero. Alfonso was related to Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the founding
members of the Guadalajara cartel. Avila’s family also had a strong kinship with the Beltran-Leyva
brothers from her mother’s side, who were involved in smuggling smack and obviously later diversified
into snow white. According to officials, Avila was also the goddaughter of Miguel Gallardo Felix,
aka el Padrino. With such a legacy, no wonder she spent so many hours counting cash as a child that
she could later swipe a clutch of bills and, like a cocktail party trick, precisely calculate their
value. Her love for money was immense, at the height of her career. She had the propensity to
carry suitcases with millions of dollars in crisp $100 bills. She was also a raucous car driver,
a skilled horseback rider, and a prodigy when it came to sharpshooting. She was also a master
of the art of flirting which was irresistible for her targets given her beauty and charms.
At a young age, she received private tuition instead of attending school publicly and
learned how to dance and play piano, all of which helped her to win hearts easily. When
she decided to join the drug business, she chose her mark perfectly. During her 22nd year of life,
Avila was secretly meeting with Amado Carillo Fuentes, also known as Lord of The Skies. Soon
her life became a full-time cartel, she was an astute learner and rose fast through the ranks.
Not to mention she was coveted by men every step of the way which did help her cause.
There have been very few women that managed to climb to the top of the peak of the drug
trafficking business. According to Avila, in the world of drugs women are taken advantage of,
discarded, and tossed out with no regret. Usually, women are nothing more than a status symbol for
Narcos. So even if one was part of a drug dynasty, not being a male posed a lot of hindrance in their
path to being taken seriously as a trafficker. The first thing Avila promised to herself was
to never consume snow white herself. According to her, the moment a woman would do snow-white
she would lose respect in the eyes of her peers. Avila on the other hand knew that to rise in the
rank as a woman she would need to be respected by everyone. For she was not there to be another
player but to be a leader, a queen. Avila worked harder than everybody to be coronated.
She peddled her charms, terminated the rivals, and made the right connections to become the key link
between Mexican and Colombian cartels including her most recent boyfriend
Juan Diego Espinoza Ramirez aka El Tigre of the Colombian Norte del Valle Cartel. She was also
careful to not leave any evidence on crime scenes so that the crime could be traced back to her.
It not only helped her to evade authorities but lack of evidence also helped rumors to fly around
cartels about the extent of her capabilities. She smuggled tons of snow-white hidden in tuna boats
from Mexico to the United States for years to be dubbed “The Queen of The Pacific.” She
allied herself with “El Chapo” Guzman, dated a top leader of the Sinaloa cartel, married twice,
and both of her husbands were ex-police commanders who became drug traffickers for her.
They both died, one of multiple bullet wounds, another punctured through the heart during
Mexico’s ongoing snow-white related gang wars. And now Avila has an altar and a candle-crowded
shrine in memory of both of them and her brother who too was wasted for the same cause.
Raking in uncountable millions of dollars, she had fully embraced the decadent Narco lifestyle.
Her assets include a fleet of 30 or more cars, a gold pendant with 83 rubies, 228 diamonds,
and 189 sapphires. Her three-decade rise to power was made possible by one single magic ingredient;
non-stop time-bound massive bribes to Mexican public officials. During her glory days, Avila was
provided with a front-row view of private jets, clandestine plastic surgery operations to disguise
her identity, and more slayings and carnages at VIP parties. For her son’s fifteenth birthday,
she gifted him a Hummer and spoiled her kids with forty thousand dollars quarterly allowances.
Her lifestyle captured in images was grand enough to give Keeping up with the Kardashians
a run for its money. The only exception was characters in her life being terminated,
often either because of gang wars or thanks to the actions taken by authorities. But losing friends
and allies didn’t deter her a bit, at her peak, Avila was pretty much invincible. Even when she
eventually got caught, she lived out her prison stay with designer clothes and multiple maids
made possible by her extraordinary wealth. She was turned into the stuff of legends with songs such
as Fiesta En La Sierra by Los Tucanes de Tijuana and La Reina del Sur by Los Tigres del Norte.
These songs described her as the lady boss of the drug empire who arrives at mountain top parties
by helicopter brandishing an AK-47 in her hands instead of a mirror and powder. Nothing stays
forever, no matter how much success you achieve it all comes undone one day, especially if that
success is riddled with blood, drugs, and other crimes. Avila’s luck too took a turn in 2002. Just
like her road to success began with a kidnapping, it reached a dead end with kidnapping as well.
Her son was abducted that year and she had to pay a ransom of five million dollars to get him back.
But the whole incident did more harm to her than to her son, it brought her out of the shadows.
Police intensified their scrutiny and now Avila was featured on most-wanted posters instead of
songs and fictional books. Sensing her time was up, Avila went on the run and managed to live for
years as a fugitive. Avila barely escaped certain death in a street ambush orchestrated by her
rivals while police were accounting for her wealth and assets to figure out how she became so rich.
It wasn’t long after that, that her illegal activities and drug trafficking empire
were out in the public. She had to live the next five years constantly running, hiding,
and looking over her shoulder as she changed houses and hair colors at the same frequency.
Losing any semblance of a normal life, Avila, who never did any drugs in her life, got high
on something else, Adrenaline. The thrill of the chase was somewhat enjoyable and addicting for
her. The same songs that once made her feel proud about herself were now reasons for her irritation;
they have exposed her to the entire world. During this hide and seek game with authorities, Avila
met Juan Diego Espinoza in 2004 who helped her to get back into the business. But the hunt continued
and so Avila kept on running until there was nowhere to run. On September 27th, 2007,
Avila was caught by Mexican authorities along with her boyfriend and she decided to surrender,
unlike her peers who will be hit in the back for running or hit in the head for fighting back.
It was a surreal but relieving experience for her that the chase was over.
For much of the next decade, she lived behind bars even though the Mexican
government couldn’t pin any drug charges on Avila.
However, the money laundering charges got her convicted. Of course, prison time for
a wealthy cartel leader in Mexico is slightly different than it is for the average inmate.
Avila’s prison stay was lavish and stylish. She said with a conspiring smirk,
money buys everything in Mexico. Thanks to the infamously corrupt system Avila would welcome
visitors decking out in high heels, jewelry, and designer clothes. Her cell was also facilitated
with three maids to serve her and her guests, food, cigarettes, and alcohol. The guards
were not there to discipline her but act as her bodyguards with an air of a low-ranking diplomat
treating Avila as their diplomat. On August 10, 2012, she was extradited to answer for criminal
charges by the U.S. government. Even though she asserted every time she was asked about
her crimes that she was “just a housewife making money on the side selling jewelry and clothes,”
she accustomed herself to the harsher prison conditions in the United States.
All the more so when she was thrown into solitary confinement. She had to survive in isolation for
nearly 2 years and she did that by reviving her journalistic dream. Listening to the radio in her
cell, she “covered and opined” on elections in Venezuela and both Obama campaigns. Scribbling
in notebooks she would make predictions about elections, mocked the futility of drug probation,
criticized Mexican politicians’ corruption, and celebrated the escape of her old friend
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Eventually, Avila was released in 2015 but her fortune is mostly
buried and she had a task force of lawyers fighting the legal battle for her 15 homes,
30 sports cars, and an estimated 300 jewels. Even though she is out of the industry now,
she doesn’t think the legalization of certain drugs would change anything and there will
always be something to make the next generation of Narcos prosper. Tell us in the comments,
was seven years of incarceration was just enough for someone like Sandra Avila Beltran? Or what
would in your opinion be the end of Narcos? As always, thanks for watching Nutty History.