MEXICO CITY, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- The number of women imprisoned for federal crimes in Mexico has increased 400 percent over the past three years, officials in Mexico said.
The National Women's Institute said nearly 4,300 women have been imprisoned for federal crimes -- mostly involving drugs and guns -- over the past three years, USA Today reported.
The reason for the increase varies, but Mexico City human rights attorney Luis Jorge de la Pena said at least 40 percent of those convicted of drug crimes were coerced by their boyfriends or husbands to either move illegal contraband between cites, or to smuggle drugs into prisons.
"Normally, there are cases of women knowing what their husbands have done, but they are convicted as accomplices for not denouncing them," de la Pena said.
Some women aren't satisfied being merely accomplices, the report said, acknowledging the case of Sandra Avila Beltran, who was known as the "Queen of the Pacific."
She was known for her luxurious lifestyle and role as an alleged key go-between for Mexican and Colombian cartels before her arrest in 2007.
The report also noted the headlines made by Colombian model Angie Sanclemente Valencia, who was arrested in Argentina. Investigators said she recruited pretty girls to move drugs northward.
Experts say women are willing participants because they see the cartels as a way to lift themselves out of poverty.
