Like El Chapo last month, one of his top cronies has been arrested by police. That person is none other than El Chapo-led Sinaloa cartel member Guadalupe Fernández Valencia, who's been described as the drug kingpin's "financial operator," a woman who may or may not have signed off on El Chapo's penis surgery while on the run and the order of tacos that would lead to his capture. Though we're sure she was busy running other important finances.
Business Insiderreports the 55-year-old best known as "La Patrona" (The Boss) was arrested by authorities in Mexico on Tuesday in Culiacan according to VICE News who spoke to a National Security Commission spokesman. Fernandez is said to have been a lieutenant for El Chapo's son Alfredo Guzmán. In 1998 she was arrested and did a prison stint in California for drug trafficking. Per Mexico's National Defense Commission statement, Fernandez is, "responsible for importing large quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana from Mexico into the United States."
The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control determined Fernandez a "Foreign Narcotics Kingpin" saying, "Guadalupe Fernández Valencia, who is originally from Michoacán, moves both drugs and money for the Sinaloa Cartel." She was indicted for both drug trafficking and money laundering by the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois in January 2015.
Per the National Defense Commission, Fernandez is to be kept in a Mexican federal prison until U.S. authorities look into her case.
