HomeNewsBriefColombia Captures Cocaine Fixer 'La Faraona'
BRIEF

Colombia Captures Cocaine Fixer 'La Faraona'

COLOMBIA / 6 JUL 2015 BY ARRON DAUGHERTY EN

A recent capture by Colombian authorities highlights the importance of "super fixers" in modern drug trafficking and the perceived novelty of women in the drug trade.

Authorities arrested Magaly Chavez Ante, alias "La Faraona," who allegedly coordinated boat shipments of cocaine moving from Ecuador and Colombia's Pacific coast to the United States, local media reported. 

Chavez lived in Ecuador but was captured in Colombia's third-largest city, Cali. She reportedly traveled to Colombia to meet with drug trafficking associates who had been threatened by Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel. 

According to newspaper El Tiempo, Chavez and a group of Colombian operatives had been tasked with supplying the Mexican group with 500 kilos of cocaine a week. However, the Sinaloans began threatening their Colombian partners, after multiple drug shipments were confiscated on routes Chavez had assured were safe. 

The 45-year-old Chavez reportedly began her criminal career in her native city of Buenaventura, on Colombia's Pacific coast. She coordinated drug shipments for Colombia drug cartel the Rastrojos before moving to Haiti in 1998, to coordinate cocaine smuggling through the Caribbean. Following Haiti's 2010 earthquake, Chavez settled in Ecuador under a fake identity, where she allegedly resumed facilitating drug shipments moved via Pacific routes. 

Her alias -- "The Pharaoh" in English -- came from her ability to form partnerships with multiple criminal groups simultaneously, including sometimes enemies the Rastrojos and the Urabeños, Colombian police were quoted as saying. 

The United States has an open extradition request for Chavez. 

InSight Crime Analysis

Chavez appears to have made a career out of being the perfect intermediary. After the downfall of numerous cocaine empires in Colombia and other nations, drug traffickers have largely reorganized into smaller groups that specialized in a single aspect of the trade. This has created a niche for people like Chavez who can coordinate between these groups, a role that crime analyst Doug Farah has dubbed "super fixers." 

With numerous cartel heads throughout Latin America dead or behind bars, governments in the region may find targeting these "super fixers" a more effective strategy than the so-called "Kingpin" approach

Chavez's arrest also drew significant media attention in Colombia, part of which is due to public fascination with female criminals in what is seen as a male-dominated industry. As Chavez' case develops, it may yet see the same sensationalism generated by similar figures like Mexico's "Narco-mom," or Colombia's "Cocaine Queen." However, not only are there plenty of cases of women who have played important roles in Latin America's transnational drug trade, but women also carry out key tasks for the region's street gangs as well. 

 

Caracol Video Report on La Faraona

 

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COLOMBIA / 1 JUL 2022

Colombian police uncovered a sex ring featuring underage migrants from Venezuela. Why does sex trafficking flourish in border areas?…

COLOMBIA / 18 OCT 2022

Former FARC commander Iván Mordisco has reappeared in Colombia after months of speculation that he had died.

CRIMINAL MIGRATION / 19 JUL 2022

Amid El Salvador's brutal anti-gang crackdown, one top MS13 leader was escorted out of the country by a government official.

About InSight Crime

WORK WITH US

Open Position: Social Media and Engagement Strategist

27 MAY 2023

InSight Crime is looking for a Social Media and Engagement Strategist who will be focused on maintaining and improving InSight Crime’s reputation and interaction with its audiences through publishing activities…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Receives Great Reception

27 MAY 2023

Several of InSight Crime’s most recent articles about Venezuela have been well received by regional media. Our article on Venezuela’s colectivos expanding beyond their political role to control access to…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Chemical Precursor Report Continues

19 MAY 2023

For the second week in a row, our investigation into the flow of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of synthetic drugs in Mexico has been cited by multiple regional media…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Chemical Precursor Report Widely Cited

THE ORGANIZATION / 12 MAY 2023

We are proud to see that our recently published investigation into the supply chain of chemical precursors feeding Mexico’s synthetic drug production has been warmly received.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Paraguay Election Coverage Draws Attention 

5 MAY 2023

InSight Crime looked at the various anti-organized crime policies proposed by the candidates in Paraguay’s presidential election, which was won on April 30 by Santiago Peña. Our pre-election coverage was cited…