Federal officials say that since 2016, they’ve seized nearly 64,000 pounds of cocaine that was destined for the United States from South America. On Monday, an Ecuadorian woman “directly linked” to more than 7,000 pounds of those seized drugs — and an untold amount that successfully reached the country — was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
Beatriz Cristina Barreiro Quiñónez, who was arrested in 2017 in Guatemala, pleaded guilty last year to a drug transportation conspiracy charge as part of a 26-person indictment that also resulted in the sentencing of a Guatemalan vice mayor.
But while most of Barreiro’s co-defendants have been sentenced to periods between four and six years for their more minor roles, such as captaining drug-laden boats, Barreiro was described in court Monday and in various filings in the case as one of the highest-level members of her organization. Prosecutors described her in sentencing documents as a “coordinator and top aide for the leader” of a Guatemalan drug transportation cell.
“That’s high level stuff,” U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said Monday, adding that Barreiro appeared to be “near the top of the food chain.”
Prosecutors wrote in sentencing documents that “Barreiro traveled between Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Guatemala to coordinate large shipments of cocaine.” They wrote that intercepted messages “show Barreiro directly linked to at least four go-fast vessel seizures” between February and June of 2017 totaling more than 7,000 pounds of cocaine.
“Blackberry messages show Barreiro overseeing payment, maritime coordinates, refueling locations, and other logistics requirements for crews transporting cocaine across the Eastern Pacific Ocean,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Allison Murray wrote in sentencing papers.
Burns, who once oversaw the prosecution of the Arellano Félix brothers who long controlled Tijuana’s drug trade, likened Barreiro to the lieutenants in the Arellano Félix Organization who worked just underneath the brothers. The judge said Barreiro was the type of person who should be arrested and extradited to the U.S., both for her own punishment and as a warning to others involved in the drug trade.
The difference between Barreiro and most other high-level drug smugglers, of course, is that Barreiro is a woman.
Mexico-based journalist Deborah Bonello, who last year published the book “Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America’s Cartels,” said women have always played important roles in drug and criminal organizations, though their conduct has not always drawn the same attention as their male counterparts.
“Women are scattered across the ranks as much as men,” Bonello said. But she said they’ve often been “invisible to us because of the male gaze” of both the law enforcement agents who investigate cartels and the journalists who document their crimes.
She said that, like men, women are often drawn into the drug trade through marriage and familial relationships.
Bonello said women are often seen as “less capable of violence and delinquency,” which can be an asset in the drug trade.
“It’s easier for women to seem harmless because of gender tropes,” Bonello said. “But tricking people into thinking you’re something you’re not is fundamental to the crime game.”
In public court documents in the case, prosecutors did not accuse Barreiro of carrying out or ordering any violence. The judge also noted that her criminal activity was surprising and seemed “incongruent” with the rest of her life — a single mother of two successful children who also took custody of her niece when her sister died.
“I’m very, very remorseful,” Barreiro told the judge through an interpreter. “I’ve already learned I’m going to be a better person.”
Her attorney, Megan Foster, said Barreiro grew up poor and suffered abuse from a family member, but she graduated from high school and worked in several different industries. In 2004, her family of four was in a car crash that killed her husband and left her and her two children with permanent injuries. Despite those difficulties, Barreiro supported her son, who is now an engineer, and her daughter, who is now a doctor.
Barreiro has already served more than six years of her sentence, most of it in Guatemalan custody. Foster said Barreiro endured “absolutely abhorrent conditions” there and “survived multiple attempts on her life,” as well as riots and mistreatment by guards on the basis of her race. Foster claimed Barreiro faced corrupt officials who delayed her extradition and was approached in jail about continuing to work for the drug cell while in custody, but declined to do so.
The judge said he took those factors into consideration when imposing the 10-year sentence, a term that was below the federal sentencing guidelines but that both Foster and prosecutors agreed would be appropriate.
