Mexican Drug Queen Excused By Mexican Judge

In Mexico City on December 2010, a Mexican judge acquitted a famous drug cartel "queen" of organized crime among other charges. This is yet, one more setback for a judicial system that has failed to convict and hold liable the vast majority of suspects who are captured for drug crimes.

The presiding Judge, Fernando Cordova Del Valle claimed that prosecutors failed to bring enough evidence against Sandra Avila Beltran, who has been described by both the U.S. and Mexican officials as a prominent decision maker for the Sinaloa gang, Mexico's most powerful drug cartel. Avila, otherwise dubbed the "Queen of the Pacific," was charged with organized crime, money laundering and conspiracy to traffic drugs.

Sandra Avila Beltran was arrested in September of 2007 by more than 30 federal agents as she sat in a Mexico City diner. Avila has faced an extradition request by the U.S. since November 2007. It's still unknown if Avila, who remains in a Mexico City prison, faces lesser charges after the Friday ruling and if she will still be extradited to the United States.

The extradition request came after more than 9 tons of U.S. bound cocaine was seized in 2001 onboard a fishing vessel in the port of Manzanillo, along the west coast of Mexico. Avila's boyfriend, Colombian Juan Diego Espinoza Ramirez, was also acquitted in the same ruling. Espinoza was extradited to Florida in December of 2008 on charges involving the cocaine shipment. According to Mexican laws, suspects are allowed to be extradited to the U.S. even if they are facing trial in Mexico.

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