'La Madrina', the ally of 'El Chapo' that flooded the US with Cocaine

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat   Milenio

Her history is very unique, because there are few women who have power in the world of drug trafficking. Luz Irene Fajardo Campos,  La Madrina  or  La Comadre, is one, since she joined the Sinaloa cartel, the organization with the largest worldwide presence. Irene obtained cocaine directly from Colombia and employed pilots and negotiated the purchase of airplanes to transport the alkaloid to Central America and Mexico. To extend his criminal capability she joined the cartel. Fajardo involved his children in this endeavor, who today are operators and are responsible for the distribution of coca and methamphetamine in the United States.

Last December, La Madrina was convicted of various crimes in the United States, she is awaiting sentencing which will commence on March 26.

MILENIO had access to the file of this woman who drew the attention of the DEA and the Arizona Prosecutor, who followed each of her steps and telephone conversations, which ended up demonstrating her power, which was known until 2017 when she was captured in Colombia and extradited almost immediately.

 Irene supervised the importation of chemicals into Mexico and the processing of methamphetamine in a clandestine laboratory in the desert, near Hermosillo, Sonora, the drug was then transported  to Tucson, Arizona and Jackson, Mississippi, among other cities.

Today her name joins that of Cynthia Guadalupe Alvarado Campa,  La Potra, who was the second in charge of said cartel in Durango and Coahuila, and was part of the Group of Special Weapons and Tactics of the Attorney General's Office of Coahuila, which  was created to face the Gulf and Los Zetas cartels.

During the trial chaired by Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, for the District of Columbia, in case number 1: 16-cr-00154, audios recorded in 2012 were presented, in which La Madrina and her children are heard talking to their subordinates.

In one of the audios, Luz Irene presses to recover a car that was reported stolen and sits in an impounded vehicle yard.

The interest is because the unit has a drug shipment hidden.

—Fajardo: How are you, Mario (last name Grado), how are you doing? This is Jenny, the friend of your brother.

—Grado: Hey, what's up?

—Fajardo: Well listen here. Look that I'm very puzzled with that problem ... he is telling me, uh, Luis,  that, she has doubts about whether to pick up the car.

—Grado: The car… they will pick it up. Yes they will pick it up.

—Fajardo: Oh, okay.

—Grado:… but he is telling me of, what is inside,  well, I don't know…. I don't know what… I don't know because my lady is scared. Do you understand  me?

—Fajardo:… she has to go by car… she won't have any problems. In order to retrieve without problem. The car when it is reported, that is, they saw it abandoned and picked it up was not because of what it brought inside.

Similarly, there are conversations about the transfer of drugs that they carried out through aircraft and lost cargoes in Central America, because planes crashed. Although the woman managed for a long time with a low profile, that was not an impediment for Americans to get information about their daily lives, since then the file has dozens of photos of the people she met, including her sons. 

For the crimes of international drug trafficking conspiracy to transport thousands of kilograms of cocaine and dozens of pounds of methamphetamine to the United States, La Madrina can receive a sentence of 10 years in prison to life imprisonment. In March his punishment will be known.