Mexico's drug 'queen' Sandra Avila Beltran

BBC

US authorities extradited one of the most notorious women accused of links to Mexico's drug trade on Thursday, Mexican officials said.

Mexican police handed over Sandra Avila Beltran, a 52-year-old known as the "Queen of the Pacific," at an airport in the central city of Toluca.

Avila is expected to appear before a federal judge in Florida on charges of criminal conspiracy and drug trafficking.

From at least January 1999 to March 2004, she is accused of belonging to "a drug trafficking organization dedicated to buying and transporting between Colombia and the United States of America," Mexican prosecutors said in a statement.

Avila was arrested in September 28, 2007, south of Mexico City. Her lawyers had previously won three appeals to avoid her extradition.