The women that became among the most powerful narcos in Mexico

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Infobae article

Subject Matter: Women in the world of Narcos
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Ma Baker, Narcomami, The empress of Antrax, The Queen of the Pacific are among those who have gained fame and power in the criminal cartels.

Reporter: Elia Baltazar
On August 19, 2002, ministerial police from the State of Mexico arrived at 29 Poniente Street in the La Perla neighborhood, in Nezahualcóyotl, a municipality of Mexico City.The patrols surrounded the street and the agents went to number 414, where she lived with her family Delia Patricía Buendía the powerful drug trafficker known as"La Ma Baker".

She was the first known woman who excelled in the world of drugs She was then 45 years old, had been a secretary, cashier of a Chinese cafe, in charge of a social center and even an employee of the Ministry of Public Education.In the Tepito neighborhood, where she grew up, she started her drug business, which she later turned into the famous Cartel of Neza, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the east of the metropolitan area of ​​the Valley of Mexico, which she operated with her entire family, particularly the husbands of their three daughters.

Delia Patricia Buendía, "La Ma Baker"

Delia Patricia Buendía, "La Ma Baker"The former leader of the Neza Cartel is currently imprisoned in the Santiaguito prison. The Attorney General's Office (PGR) attributed the control of at least 500 narcotics assets, assets that included a wrestling arena and a network of protection,judges and even magistrates.

Only that year, in the months prior to her arrest,Ma Baker had ordered the assassination of three high-level police officers and the capital attorney's office:Arturo Pérez Estrada, head of Plaza in the Iztapalapa delegation;Guillermo Robles Estrada Liceaga, director of Mixed Operations of the Ministry of Public Security of the Federal District and Nicolás Humberto del Águila Jiménez, agent of the Federal Public Ministry

Today she is a 60-year-old woman who is being held in the Santiaguito prison;"But her story opened a place for women in the drug trafficking family album in Mexico. As the drug business in Mexico grew, women began to have increasingly active and violent roles.

So much so, that since 2011 the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has included 14 Mexican women on its list of most wanted criminals.Some well-known ones, such as Enedina Arellano Félix, who took the reins of the Tijuana cartel when his brothers, Ramón and Francisco Rafael, were arrested.But other names have appeared since then.Leticia Rodríguez Lara, known as Doña Letyor La 40, who dominates drug trafficking and human trafficking in Cancun and Playa del Carmen.

Leticia Rodrúguez Lara, Doña Lety

It is said that she gained power by leading a local group, composed of defectors from the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, and allied with the Sinaloa cartel. She is 48 years old, it is presumed that she was a federal police officer and the PGR has opened three investigations against her: one for trafficking in undocumented persons, and two for carrying firearms for the exclusive use of the army. The authorities attribute responsibility for the shootings in Quintana Roo, for clashes with rival groups.

Intermediate boss

Many of the women in drug trafficking have nothing to do with the glamorous image that television, film and literature series have constructed.They are not Teresa Mendoza, the protagonist of the novelLa reina del Sur written by Arturo Pérez-Reverte in 2002.

Nor are the lovers confined to the role of luxury objects of the capos They have taken up arms and control of organizations, along with important narcos from Mexico. But there are some that its appeal has paid to its legend.One on the list is "La Güera Loca", whose name was unknownIt is said that she was born in Navolato, Sinaloa, territory of the cartel headed by Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzman, but she was linked to the Cartel del Golfo and Los Zetas She began as a halcone" that is, a paid look out.

Then she escalated to and gained fame as bloodthirsty and "crazy" to appear in videos in which she killed her victims After a few years, according to the stories that are available on Internet sites, she was already a leader of hired assassins in the San Fernando area of ​​Tamaulipas and had her own corrido, made up of the Sierra Fox group that says: "What men can do women can also/ The Güerita shouts, 'Tell me, how do you prefer it?/ This is the Güera Loca from San Fernando, for all Tamaulipas, Cartel del Golfo operating

She was blonde, with clear eyes and a slender figure, according to her legend and apparently was murdered in 2013 by Los Zetas, after she split with the Cartel del Golfo.

In the same category is Claudia Berenice Ochoa Felix, whom they called " The Antrax Empress" and they called her the "Kim Kardashian of organized crime", for her exuberance in publishing photos of herself on Instagram and Twitter, which have now been made private.

She has denied her links to organized crime on more than one occasion, but has been continuously identified as the leader of a group linked to the Sinaloa Cartel headed by "El Chino Antrax", Jose Rodrigo Arechiga, who was arrested in Amsterdam, Holland.

Claudia Berenice Ochoa Felix

In an interview with the new site El Debate, in 2014, she said, "After a while they will show that I killed Colosio and that Jenni Rivera is not dead, and that she is hiding in my house", stating that she was not involved with organized crime, since then little has been known about her. (Otis: see link to article by BB matriach Chivis on her).

The Jefas

A woman has remained at the top of the drug trade. It is Enedina Arellano Felix, sole head of the Cartel Arellano Felix. 57 years old, they call her "La Jefa", "La Madrina" or "Narcomami" and her right hand man is her own son.

During the 80's and 90's she was responsible for the financial side and money laundering of the CAF operated by her brothers and since 2008 she became its leader, since the apprehension of her brother Eduardo Arellano Felix in 2008.

Enedina Arellano Felix

She was an accountant and together with her husband, Luis Toledo Carrejo, has companies in Tijuana, through which she launders money derived from illicit profits from drug trafficking according to the Time Report by Ioan Grillo.

The authorities say that she had a somewhat different vision of the business, because she is not interested in formenting wars and her objective is the alliances that have allowed her to operate with a certain tranquility. The PGR affirms that her position is held by a nephew, but she maintains her position as a counselor.

Clara Elena Laborin

Clara Elena Laborin was close to the loft heights of La Madrina, identified as the wife of Hector Beltran Leyva and a leader in the Beltran Leyva Cartel. She was arrested in Septmeber of 2017 in Hermosillo, Sonora.

Another was Sandra Avila Beltran, the Queen of the Pacific, who was arrested in September 28th of 2007 and released in 2015, after serving five years in prison for using illicit proceeds in Mexico, and was later extradited to the United States, where she was sentenced to 70 months in prison.

Sandra Avila Beltran

Others have also been arrested including Mireya Moreno Carreon, identified as the head of Los Zetas in San Nicolas de los Garza, Nuevo Leon and Ramona Camacho Valle, linked to Los Rojos, and Sandra Gisel Acosta, who worked with El Chapo Guzman.

Mireya Moreno Carreon

Some fall and others will continue to operate in a world that has long ceased to be reserved only for men.