Cartels are enlisting ruthless female assassins to strengthen their forces, as part of a brutal campaign to eliminate their adversaries and control the narcotics trade.
One prominent figure is Juana N, also known as La Peque, who swiftly ascended from dire circumstances to a prominent role within the Los Zetas cartel in Mexico.
Hailing from Hidalgo, Juana faced early motherhood at 15 and grappled with financial struggles. Turning to sex work due to limited choices and increasing poverty, she eventually crossed paths with underworld figures.
Through these connections, she was recruited by Los Zetas, initially serving as an informant. Allegedly involved in decapitations, mutilations, and extreme violence while affiliated with the cartel.
She detailed lengthy periods on surveillance duty, monitoring roads for law enforcement presence. Any failure in her task resulted in punishment such as confinement and meager sustenance.
In a prison interview, she shockingly admitted to bathing in victims’ blood, consuming it warm, and engaging in necrophilic acts. Currently awaiting sentencing for her atrocious crimes.
Los Zetas is not the sole group with merciless female members. Claudia Ochoa Félix, likened to the ‘Kim Kardashian of organized crime,’ operated within the Sinaloa Cartel and its enforcer gang Los Antrax.
The model flaunted pink AK-47s, luxurious vehicles, and stacks of money on social platforms. Linked romantically to Jose Gamboa, another drug trafficker and former leader of Los Antrax.
Post Gamboa’s apprehension, Felix purportedly assumed control of the lethal hit squad. Their members often wear diamond-adorned skull rings and commit brutal acts to fortify the gang’s position.
In a 2011 confrontation with Mexican troops in Culiacan, the gang uncovered three captives in a nearby hideout, one victim displaying mutilated ears and toes.
After the assassination of Los Antrax’s ex-leader Arce Rubio, the group executed 20 killings across Sinaloa. Three bodies were discovered hanging from a bridge in Guamuchil, one victim tortured with a severe abdominal wound.
The other two victims were stored in a freezer until disposal. Felix was discovered lifeless in Culiacán in 2019 after reportedly consuming substances. The circumstances of her demise sparked conjecture, with some alleging cartel retribution.
María Guadalupe López Esquivel, known as “La Catrina,” emerged as a feared hitwoman for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
Leading a team of ruthless assassins, she orchestrated ambushes against rival factions and coordinated assaults on law enforcement targets.
In 2019, her squad ambushed a group of police officers in Michoacan, resulting in 13 casualties. Signatures of the cartel were left at the scene.
La Catrina frequently exhibited high-end brands, luxury vehicles, gold-plated weaponry, and posed with armed guards on social media.
Her violent reign concluded in a gunfight with federal and state security forces near Mexico City in 2020. Sustaining a neck injury, she succumbed shortly after being airlifted to a hospital.
Footage from a soldier’s bodycam captured the 21-year-old struggling for breath post-throat wound.
Assuring her help was on the way, he tried to comfort her before she passed away in the helicopter moments before reaching a military medical facility.
