Glenis Zapata, a 34-year-old former beauty queen, was arrested in a major drug bust linked to a Mexican cartel. Zapata, who was crowned Miss Indiana Latina in 2011, allegedly used her job as a flight attendant to transport drug money.
Zapata is charged with two counts of money laundering, accused of transporting large sums of cash ($170,000 and $140,000) on two separate occasions in 2019. She was one of 18 suspects arrested in a larger operation targeting Oswaldo Espinosa, a top fugitive and alleged leader of a multi-million dollar drug trafficking ring.
Espinosa’s organization is accused of flooding US streets with thousands of kilograms of cocaine. The ring allegedly recruited ordinary people like Zapata to help transport drugs and money. Cash and cocaine were hidden in warehouses and garages in Chicago, then transported to the southern US and Mexico using semi-trailer trucks and commercial flights.
The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces led the investigation, which resulted in the arrest of Zapata and others. The task force targets major drug rings in the US.
The Espinosa DTO is a smaller cartel compared to larger organisations like the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel. There are estimated to be around 150 Mexican cartels, with many spreading their illegal activities into the US.
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