“La Comadre,” a Mexican national was sentenced in federal court to 22 years in prison for her role in an international drug trafficking conspiracy to transport into the United States thousands of kilograms of cocaine and dozens of pounds of methamphetamine.
Luz Irene Fajardo Campos, aka “La Comadre,” “La Madrina” and “La Doña,” 57, of Culiacan, Mexico, was convicted of conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, and to manufacture and/or distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine in Mexico, Colombia, Honduras and elsewhere, knowing or intending that these substances would be unlawfully imported into the United States following a seven-day jury trial in December 2019.
According to the evidence introduced at trial, Fajardo Campos led a drug trafficking organization with her adult children that was aligned with the Sinaloa cartel. She sourced cocaine directly from Colombia, employed pilots, and brokered the purchase of jets to fly the cocaine to Central America and Mexico. She partnered with other traffickers in the Sinaloa cartel and her children for further distribution of the cocaine into the United States. She also oversaw the importation of precursor chemicals into Mexico, which she processed into methamphetamine at a laboratory located in the desert outside Hermosillo, Mexico. She distributed this methamphetamine in Tucson, Arizona, and Jackson, Mississippi, among other locations. She also paid bribes to law enforcement officials in Mexico and Colombia to import cocaine through an international airport and attempted to bribe other public officials to secure the arrest of rival drug traffickers and the release of precursor chemicals seized at Mexican shipping ports.
In addition to the prison sentence, Fajardo Campos was also ordered to serve five years of supervised release and forfeit $18 million.