Women taking on increasing power in Mexican cartels

(NewsNation) — Mexican cartels are responsible for funneling deadly drugs, including fentanyl, into the U.S. A new force is rising in cartels, as women take on more powerful roles as overlords of organized crime.

Journalist Deborah Bonello joined NewsNation to discuss the ways women are proving they are as capable of launching all-out war against their enemies. While Bonello said the presence of women in cartels isn’t new, but women may use the perception of being less of a threat to their advantage.

“Prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers told me that women use the gender stereotypes that exist around them, which basically make them less suspicious in the eyes of the law, less capable of violence, less capable of deceit, to go under the radar and advance their criminal interests,” Bonello said.

Sometimes called “queens of the cartels,” some women, like El Chapo’s wife Emma Coronel Aispuro, are more well-known in the media while others are less flashy but more powerful. That includes Guadalupe Fernandez-Valencia, a woman who Bonello described as looking like a typical Mexican grandmother who operated as El Chapo’s chief money launderer.

From money laundering to transportation and logistics, Bonello said women are taking part in the work done by cartels, not just sitting by while men are running criminal schemes.

“Women are really present at all stages of the chain, as far as I can tell,” she said.