Mexico’s narco queen is released from prison

After being in prison for over seven years, Mexico’s narco Sandra Avila Beltran has been freed. A judge ruled in favor of her appeal last week, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office said in a statement Saturday.

Avila Beltran, known as the “Queen of the Pacific,” was first arrested in Mexico City on September 28, 2007 for money laundering.

SEE ALSO: Sandra Avila Beltran, ‘Queen of the Pacific,’ to face drug charges in US

In August 2012, the Mexican government handed Avila Beltran to U.S. authorities, since she was facing charges of cocaine trafficking.

Two years later, she was deported back to Mexico. And in 2014, Avila Beltran was sentenced to five more years in prison and a fine for money laundering.

But on Friday, a judge ruled that the conviction was not valid because she’d already been tried for the same crime in Mexico and the United States, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office said, according to CNN.

Avila Beltran was given the “Queen of the Pacific” name because she allegedly controlled drug trafficking routes along the Pacific Ocean, which ran from Colombia to Mexico.

Authorities say she was born into the drug business — her uncle, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, is serving a 40 years in prison for smuggling and murdering a U.S. drug enforcement agent.

SEE ALSO: ‘Queen of the South’ hopes to reign in narco-violence in USA

In Mexico’s male-dominated drug trade, her life story became a legend, inspiring the popular telenovela series “La Reina del Sur” and even a ballad by Los Tigres del Norte called “Reina de Reinas” (Queen of Queens).