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"Queen of the Pacific," convicted Mexican drug smuggler, freed from prison

By Andrew V. Pestano

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Convicted drug smuggler Sandra Avila Beltran, known as the "Queen of the Pacific," was freed from jail Saturday after a judge accepted her appeal.

She was arrested in September 2007 in Mexico City and was later given a six-year prison sentence in the United States before being extradited to Mexico in 2013 to face money-laundering charges.

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She was sentenced to five years in Mexico for money laundering in 2014, but was now released because a judge agreed with her claim that she already served time for that crime.

Avila was released at about 10 p.m. from the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 4 prison in Tepic, the largest city in the Mexican state of Nayarit.

Avila is the niece of Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, known as "The Godfather" and the founder of the Guadalajara Cartel who is serving a 40-year prison sentence in a maximum security prison in Mexico. He was convicted of drug trafficking and of the murder of undercover DEA agent Enrique Camarena.

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