Mexico's Drug Queen Extradited to the US

Mexico's most powerful female drug smuggler will be extradited and face drug trafficking charges in the US, judges have ruled. Sandra Avile, known as the "Queen of the Pacific" for leading drug trafficking routes up the Pacific coast from Mexico to California, has been held in Mexico since she was arrested in 2007 for organized crime and money laundering. She will now face charges in the US for smuggling 220 lbs of cocaine into Chicago between June and September 2001. The queen-pin allegedly helped build one of Mexico's leading drug cartels—the Sinaloa cartel—with Mexico's most wanted drug criminal, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman. A power-struggle between the Sinaloa cartel and rival gang Las Zetas has resulted in numerous gruesome murders in recent years—adding to a death toll from the Mexican drug war that is thought to have reached 55,000 over the past six years. Avile's uncle Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo is known as the "godfather" of the Mexican drug trade; he's currently serving 40 years for drug trafficking and the murder of a DEA agent in 1985.