Former Indiana Beauty Queen Arrested in Mexican Drug Cartel Bust (2024)

Two bank workers and a former beauty pageant winner from Indiana have been charged with assisting a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization with money laundering.

The federal indictment related to the case was unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

Glenis Zapata, a 34-year-old former Miss Indiana Latina, used to work as a flight attendant on commercial airline flights, where she would use the privileges as a “Known Crew Member” with a badge to transport narcotics proceeds from the Midwest to the South and Mexico, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Zapata, who is from Lafayette, Indiana, faces two counts of federal money laundering charges, according to the indictment.

One count is for an instance on Aug. 7, 2019, when she allegedly helped move approximately $170,000; the other is for an instance on Sept. 10, 2019, when she is accused of transporting about $140,000.

The flight attendant’s alleged role in the scheme came to light during an investigation into a Mexico-based drug cartel led by 41-year-old Oswaldo Espinosa.

The investigation was taking place in 2021 when federal agents impounded a private plane and 100 kilograms of cocaine as part of a raid in Chicago.

Glenis Zapata allegedly had collaborated with her sister and bank worker, Ilenis Zapata, 33, and bank employee Georgina Banuelos, 39, in the scheme.

Ilenis Zapata and Banuelos aided the money laundering efforts by changing the cash comprising the illegally trafficked narcotic revenue from lower-denominated bills to higher-denominated ones, according to the indictment.

Banuelos, prosecutors allege, engaged in the transaction while knowing that it was “designed in whole and in part to avoid a transaction reporting requirement under Federal law” and that the money in question “involved the proceeds of a specified unlawful activity,” court documents said.

The bank workers are accused on three counts: one for a time on July 9, 2019, when they helped launder around $150,000 worth of money; the second on Aug. 6, 2019, involving approximately $100,000; and a third for Oct. 24, 2019, when they helped launder about $150,000, court documents said.

The trio were part of Espinosa’s network, which went from Mexico to Chicago and spanned several U.S. cities, according to prosecutors.

The network’s assets, the news release noted, included warehouses, garages and stash houses in Chicago.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Espinosa was the organization’s main manager, while Mexican-national Jorge Borbon-Ochoa, 46, governed the cartel’s work in Chicago.

Ricardo Tello, a 37-year-old from Mission, Texas, worked as the group’s drug runner, according to prosecutors.

Tello allegedly would smuggle cocaine in large amounts from Mexico to various cities in the U.S. between 2018 and 2023.

The arraignments for the trio’s charges have yet to be scheduled, the news release stated.

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