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Narcas: The Role of Women in Latin American Cartels

  • Writer: Morgan McBride
    Morgan McBride
  • Jul 17
  • 5 min read

Women in Male-Dominated Fields: Drug Trafficking, Money Laundering, and Cartel-based Violence



In her book, Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America’s Cartels, Deborah Bonello breaks down the myths, legends, and hidden accounts of the women involved with drug trafficking, money laundering, cartel violence, and a wider array of components of their region’s criminal enterprise.


Investigative journalist Deborah Bonello details the lives and legacies of women involved in Latin America’s cartels, as their roles have been historically underestimated in the region’s criminal landscape. Women like Digna Valle, Marixa Lemus, Luz Irene Fajarado Campos, Yaneth Vergara Hernández, and Marllory Chacón are all names and stories largely excluded from the public narrative of the cartel world.




We highly recommend that you read her novel, as it does an incredible job of piecing together narratives and viewing the story’s subjects from all angles.


Deborah Bonello’s research highlights the critical involvement of women in Latin America’s organized crime groups since at least the 1920s. Women have been proven to hold roles in all ranks of organized crime groups and markets, which typically contrasts with the commonly portrayed view of women as either lethal female killers or victims of organized crime.


The public perception of cartels throughout the Americas typically concentrates on “macho men” leading a violent charge throughout the region. Pablo Escobar, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, and many other notorious cartel leaders have become fixtures of popular culture, especially through television and movies. These figures, and those of a fictional nature representing similar archetypes, portray a general disregard for laws and social norms, a tendency towards violent behavior, volatile behavior, and other stark characteristics. Yet, women of all ages have always maintained a central role in the cartel ecosystem in many ways. The portrayal of women with connections to the cartels often portrays highly sexualized wives or girlfriends of cartel members.


“The patriarchy of the cartels seems very real, but to assume women don’t have a capacity for violence or a thirst for power and status is just another narrow gender stereotype that grossly misunderstands and underestimates women and their role in the social order.” — Deborah Bonello

Women in the Americas have maintained critical roles in the drug trafficking industry as drug mules, cooks (chemical processing cocaine), coca growers, lookouts, money launderers, and more. Studies have indicated an upward trend of women behind bars for drug-related offenses throughout the Americas over the past two decades. According to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a critical component of this data-driven increase derives from the adoption of punitive drug laws that disproportionately affect women. WOLA’s data indicates that in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, and Peru, the proportion of women prisoners incarcerated for drug offenses is a minimum of 30% higher than for incarcerated men in those countries. Even with that information in mind, the incarceration of women for drug-related offenses often does minimal deterrence and prevention for the drug trafficking market, as their roles are often easily replaceable.


“Those women were already exposed to violence, and the management of violence is a business strategy — it is one of the most powerful currencies in organized crime. Whether it’s extortion, whether it’s doing deals, or if someone’s threatening to harm you or harm your family, burn down your business, it’s difficult to resist or defend yourself. Most of the women were used to and tolerant of the presence of violence, even if they weren’t delegating violence or doing it themselves.” — Deborah Bonello

Nonetheless, the drug trafficking industry present in the Americas consists of numerous high-powered women with robust influence on the drug trade.


Sandra Ávila Beltrán “The Queen of the Pacific”
Sandra Ávila Beltrán “The Queen of the Pacific”

For instance, Sandra Ávila Beltrán’s public perception and discourse revolve primarily around her sex appeal, her plastic surgery, her appearance, and her drug trafficking family. However, accounts of her story fail to adequately highlight her role as a senior member of the Sinaloa Cartel through which she built connections with Colombian traffickers as well. She became notorious for organizing a fleet of tuna boats filled with 10 tons of cocaine in each vessel, as they traversed from Mexico’s Pacific coast to the United States.


Marllory Chacón Rossell “Queen of the South”
Marllory Chacón Rossell “Queen of the South”

As the “Queen of the South,” Marllory Chacón Rossell had been deemed the most prolific money launderer in Latin America by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Her links with Guatemalan elites and allegedly the Lorenzana family clan helped build her wide catalog of connections in the drug trafficking industry with Mexican cartels like the Zetas and the Sinaloa Cartel. She soon began coordinating the reception, purchase, transport, and shipment of multi-ton cocaine shipments between Honduras, Guatemala, and on to the United States.


“Sometimes, criminal organizations offer some women the opportunity to develop a leadership scheme. And since prejudice and machismo make them invisible in some way - they can advance in those activities without being seen. And that is one thing that we have to increasingly understand.” — Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera

Ignacia Jasso de González “La Nacha”
Ignacia Jasso de González “La Nacha”

Ignacia Jasso la Viuda de González (‘La Nacha’) worked in the Mexican heroin business in Ciudad Juárez between 1930 and 1970, which served as a key trafficking hub into the United States. As she inherited and expanded the drug network of her deceased husband, she built a family-based organized crime organization involving her sons, daughters, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. La Nacha’s enterprise features labs, fields, and legitimate business through which opiates and marijuana were trafficked into the United States for sale. Throughout her story of survival within the violent drug trade, La Nacha made allies, secured the support of the state authorities, and collaborated with the police to wipe out her competitors in Mexico’s first drug massacre.



Wanda del Valle was captured in December 2023 by Interpol.
Wanda del Valle was captured in December 2023 by Interpol.

Wanda del Valle Bermúdez Viera, “the little baby of crime,” was arrested by Colombian authorities in December of 2023, after being wanted by Interpol, the FBI, and law enforcement agencies across Latin America. Viera, a Venezuelan national, faced charges of sexual exploitation, extortion, contract killings, distribution of firearms, and human trafficking. Such an enterprise allegedly earned her up to $7 million per month. Wanda and her now-slain romantic partner “Maldito Cris” ran “Los Llaneros de Sangre Fría” in Peru, which was a faction of the Venezuelan criminal megagang of El Tren de Aragua.


Based on the Peruvian National Police’s (PNP) investigation, Wanda del Valle allegedly constructed a murder-for-hire plot against the head of the PNP’s Homicide Investigation Division of Dirinci, Colonel Víctor Revoredo Farfán. Hitmen were offered the fee of 40,000 dollars, as she wanted to take aim at the lead investigator whose team tracked down and killed her partner.


“We are blind to the ways women influence decisions and dynamics within gangs, albeit from beneath if not from above. As investigator Juan José Martínez told me, if the male ranfla (top leadership of the gang) is the engine that keeps the car running, at least half of the rest of the car—the body, the exhaust system, the tires—is made up of women.” — Deborah Bonello

Through the drug trafficking networks heavily prevalent in the Americas, women have become a more significant facet of transnational criminal operations. The media have recently identified specific groups of hitwomen such as Las Barbies, Las Campanitas (or ‘Tinkerbells’), and Las Reinas (the ‘Queens’) who kidnap, kill, and massacre in the region.





It is increasingly important for research and the general public to recognize the role of women on the front lines and behind the scenes of the transnational crime market. The underepresentation of women in our understanding of transnational crime only benefits the criminal actors, as they more easily slip through the cracks of investigative efforts. As actors within the transnational crime networks only become more intertwined with each other, it is of heightened significance for attention to be directed more intently on all involved in transnational criminal activity — regardless of gender, race, background, or any other identifier.



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