From beauty queen to drug cartel leader

Clara Elena Laborín Archuleta "La Señora" changed the beauty pageants for the drug business. In the late 90s, she jumped to fame after participating in the Miss Sonora pageant. She stole Héctor Beltrán Leyva's heart "El H", who assumed the control of the Beltrán Leyva cartel after the death of his brother Arturo “El Jefe de Jefes” in December 2009.

According to the federal government, "La Señora" took full control of the cartel after the capture of her husband in October 2014 in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, during an operation carried out by the National Defense's Special Operations Unit.

She had it all but she wanted more. Laborín Archuleta always sought the limelight in the show biz, in modeling and in the business sector. But there was a problem: how to move as much money from criminal operations without being detected.

In Acapulco, where she had control, she opened a luxury spa, the most selective in the tourist area, along with a businessman called Alonso Rivera Muñoz, who actually was her husband “El H.”

After her arrest, authorities said that Clara was one of the main sources of violence in Sonora and Guerrero, mainly in the area of Acapulco, where she operated along with Beltrán Leyva's cartel regional cells.