‘La Patrona’ the highest-ranking woman in El Chapo’s notorious Mexican Sinaloa cartel has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a judge in the United States.
Guadalupe Fernandez Valencia, alias ‘La Patrona’ (The boss) who is the highest-ranking woman in the Sinaloa cartel was sentenced to 10 years behind bars by the U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman on Tuesday (24th August).
La Patrona, who is reported to be in her early 60s, is accused of smuggling large quantities of cocaine into the United States and participating in a money-laundering scheme whilst working for the Sinaloa cartel.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that La Patrona apologized after hearing her sentence saying: “I want to take this opportunity to apologize to my children and my family … I wish I could find the words to convince you of how sorry I am.”
She told the judge that before she started dealing drugs she worked in f factory but after having five kids she needed more money to cover expenses.
The judge said that a ten-year sentence for someone of her [Guadalupe] is very consequential and added that Guadalupe worked for an “evil enterprise” that was once run by El Chapo himself.
She was arrested in 2016 following a firefight in Mexico between authorities and cartel members after the US charged her in absentia of trafficking crimes and requested that Mexico arrest and extradite her to the US.
In 2017 she was brought in front of a US judge in Chicago and has since then has reportedly been cooperating with the US authorities by giving them details on the Sinaloa cartel.
According to her guilty plea she contributed to the smuggling of 1,600 kilogrammes (3,527 lbs) of marijuana into the United States between 2009-2010 and at the same time moved an average of 30 kilogrammes (66 lbs) of cocaine weekly to clients in Los Angeles.
La Patrona is believed to have used a complex tunnel network in Tijuana, Mexico to smuggle cocaine, amphetamines and marijuana into the US between 2012-2014.
Furthermore, she moved money across the border for the cartel taking a 3 per cent cut from each transaction.
La Patrona is believed to have operated from Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa, working closely with Alfredo Guzman, alias ‘Alfredillo’, the son of Joaqin’El Chapo’ Guzman , leader of the cartel.
She joined the cartel in 2007 along with her brother Manuel Fernandez Valencia who is currently serving a 27-year sentence for drug trafficking in the US.
The Sinaloa Cartel was established in the 1980s in Sinaloa, Mexico and has risen to become the most dominant drug cartel in the country. According to the U.S. Attorney General, it exported 180 tons of cocaine into the US between 1980-2008.
