The 'queen' speaks
January 14, 2008 | 8:52
am
The Mexico City newspaper El Universal today begins a three-part interview with the so-called Queen of the Pacific, alleged drug doyenne Sandra Avila Beltran. In the first part, Avila Beltran says the attorney general's office is responsible for crafting and spreading the "queen" legend. "They created me so they could look good in the eyes of the Americans." She adds: "If I was really a queen, they would have never caught me." Once on the FBI's most-wanted list, Avila Beltran was allegedly a key link between Colombian drug traffickers and the mobsters of the so-called Sinaloa and Juarez cartels.
-- Hector Tobar in Mexico City
