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Summary Avila, who was arrested 2007 and has been held since, faces an unrelated money-laundering charge.
An accused drug trafficker cant be extradited to the US on a charge for which she was acquitted in Mexico, a Mexican federal court panel has ruled, dealing a blow to efforts in both countries to prosecute the woman known as Queen of the Pacific.In a separate ruling also made public, an appeals court upheld a judge who acquitted Sandra Avila Beltran on drug-trafficking, money-laundering and organized-crime charges in December, citing lack of evidence.She remained in prison after her acquittal because of the US extradition request in connection with the 2001 seizure of more than nine tons of US-bound cocaine aboard a fishing vessel in port of Manzanillo on Mexicos west coast.The federal court told Mexicos Foreign Ministry that it must refile the extradition request and include new grounds for which she would be prosecuted in the United States.At the time of her arrest, prosecutors said Avila had spent more than a decade working her way to the top of Mexicos drug trade, seducing several notorious kingpins and uniting Colombian and Mexican gangs.Avila is the niece of Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, the godfather of Mexican drug smuggling who is serving a 40-year sentence in Mexico for drug smuggling and the murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena in Mexicos western Jalisco state. Another uncle, Juan Jose Quintero Payan, was extradited to the US on drug-trafficking charges.Prosecutors have said Avilas romance with Colombian Juan Diego Espinoza Ramirez, who also was absolved in December, brought together Mexicos powerful Sinaloa cartel with Colombias Norte del Valle.
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