By The opinion
May 4, 2024, 11:21 AM EDT
In order to operate, the drug trafficker uses different means and people, from young people in economic need to important businessmen, as is the case of Debra Lynn Mercer-Erwinan American woman who registered planes for organized crime, which earned her the nickname of the “Lady of the Heavens”.
In May 2023, she was convicted by the US justice system for the crimes of money laundering, fraud and conspiracy to produce and distribute cocaine. This, after it was proven that she used more than 1,000 planes to transport cocaine from Colombia, Belize and Guatemala.
According to the Colombian media Semana, the planes were legally registered in two companies based in Texas, they added the letter N to the license plates, which allowed them to move more freely in US airspace.
Debra Lynn Mercer-Erwin, a trust company owner, is convicted of drug trafficking and the illicit transfer of US registered plans to criminal drug cartels while masterminding a $240 million Ponzi scheme. This week, we discuss how this high-flying Ponzi scheme came crashing… pic.twitter.com/xS1ZRg34xJ
— Pretend Podcast (@PretendPod) August 16, 2023
The money laundering and wire fraud convictions Mercer-Erwin, 60, received were in connection with a Ponzi scheme in which investors claim to have lost at least $240 million.
Links with drug trafficking
Both the capture and conviction of the businesswoman were carried out thanks to the collaboration of the Colombian authorities with the United States. In the investigations it was established that His criminal operation was carried out between 2010 and 2020..
It was also proven that some of its planes landed at the Matecaña International Airport, in August 2019 and early 2020, from Tapachula, Chiapas, on the border between Mexico and Guatemala, according to the media El Tiempo.
The most powerful and bloody Mexican cartels operate in that area: El Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Sinaloa Cartelwhich traffic Colombian cocaine.
When tracking the aircraft, authorities found companies based in Onalaska, a small town in Texas where there is not even an airport.
Aircraft Guaranty Corp., as trustor, is one of the “Lady of the Skies” companies, as well as the Wright Brothers Aircraft Title (WBAT) firm, which according to the investigation registered more than a thousand aircraft, including helicopters.
The woman was captured in 2020denied the accusations and assured that it is the local authorities of each country that must be in charge of controlling passengers and the things they transport.
But the investigations denied it, it was proven that She knew perfectly well who her clients were and what they did.. On the Colombian side, the cocaine was distributed by the criminal gang “La Cordillera”, the heirs of the old man. North Valley Cartel and a tentacle Gulf Clanall supported by complicit authorities.
Keep reading:
– The US identified a mayor and former beauty queen from Guatemala as the leader of a criminal organization.
– Sandra Muñoz, the Colombian model who dated more than one drug trafficker.