Indiana Beauty Queen Arrested In Mexican Cartel Drug Bust

Life can come at you really fast sometimes.  One minute, you’re a beauty queen taking home a title in Indiana without a care in the world.  The next you’re a flight attendant caught up in a Mexican cartel drug bust.

That’s the situation Glenis Zapata currently finds herself in.  The 34-year-old was crowned Miss Indiana Latina back in 2011.  She’s now facing accusations of using her job as a flight attendant to move drug money out of Chicago.

A federal indictment alleges that Zapata moved drug money from Chicago to the southern states and into Mexico.  She’s been charged with two counts of money laundering.

The charges are the result of claims that she was involved in a $170,000 cash transport on August 7, 2019, and at least $140,000 on September 10, 2019.

The former beauty queen is one of 18 suspects that were arrested alongside one of the DEA’s most wanted fugitives, Oswaldo Espinosa.  He’s the alleged ring leader of a multi-million dollar Mexican drug trafficking ring.

Miss Indiana Latina Got Mixed Up With The Cartel

Zapata and two bank tellers were among the latest to be arrested as a part of the investigation over several years into Espinosa’s alleged operation.  One of those bank tellers was Zapata’s sister, Ilenis Zapata.

If you’re thinking that Miss Indiana Latina 2011 doesn’t look like your average member of a drug trafficking organization, you’re correct.  That’s reportedly by design, according to the indictment.

Espinosa purposely recruited people from 2018 to 2023, like Zapata, who would fly under the radar while conducting their alleged criminal behavior.  That makes sense from their point of view.

What doesn’t make sense is taking down a former beauty queen with the alleged ring leader?  She’s the perfect candidate – who was obviously mixed up with the wrong people – to flip into a witness.

Not just any witness, a star witness.  I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt here.  It’s entirely possible they haven’t gotten that far with her yet, but she’s not the one that needs to have the book thrown at them.