MEXICO CITY (AP) — An accused drug trafficker can't be extradited to the U.S. 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 Tuesday, 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.
Avila, who was arrested 2007 and has been held since then, faces an unrelated money-laundering charge.She remained in prison after her acquittal because of the U.S. extradition request in connection with the 2001 seizure of more than nine tons of U.S.-bound cocaine aboard a fishing vessel in port of Manzanillo on Mexico's west coast.
The federal court told Mexico's Foreign Ministry that it must refile the extradition request and include new grounds for which she would be prosecuted in the United States.The U.S. Embassy and Mexican prosecutors had no comment on the rulings announced Tuesday.
At the time of her arrest, prosecutors said Avila had spent more than a decade working her way to the top of Mexico's 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 Mexico's western Jalisco state. Another uncle, Juan Jose Quintero Payan, was extradited to the U.S. on drug-trafficking charges.
Prosecutors have said Avila's romance with Colombian Juan Diego Espinoza Ramirez, who also was absolved in December, brought together Mexico's powerful Sinaloa cartel with Colombia's Norte del Valle.
Espinoza was extradited to Florida in December 2008 on charges related to the cocaine shipment.Avila has proclaimed her innocence from prison, saying she made her money selling clothes and renting houses.
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