Drug lord beauty arrested in Mexico swoop

BLESSED with charm and good looks, Sandra Avila Beltran is enthralling Mexico. Not as a beauty queen, but as an alleged drug lord.

Police say the raven-haired 46-year-old, arrested last week, spent more than a decade working her way to the top of Mexico’s male-dominated drug trade, uniting Colombian and Mexican gangs, and seducing several notorious kingpins.

Dubbed the “Queen of the Pacific” she even has her own folk ballad about drug traffickers by Los Tucanes de Tijuana that pays homage to her as “a top lady who is a key part of the business”.