Ex-beauty queen arrested for money laundering, drug trafficking
Glennis Zapata, the Miss Indiana Latina of 2011, was recently arrested and accused of money laundering and drug trafficking.
The former beauty queen allegedly used her job as a flight attendant to move drug money from Chicago to the southern states and into Mexico, according to a federal indictment.
The model has been charged with two counts of money laundering, stemming from a $170,000 cash transport on August 7, 2019, and at least $140,000 on September 10, 2019.
Zapata was one of 18 suspects arrested when federal law enforcement took down their main target, Oswaldo Espinosa, who was among the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) most wanted fugitives.
Zapata, along with two bank tellers – Zapata’s sister, Ilenis Zapata and Georgina Banuelos – were the latest to be arrested in the Organised Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces’ take down of Oswaldo Espinosa.
Espinosa is the alleged ring leader of a multi-million dollar, Mexico-based drug trafficking ring that flooded US streets with thousands of kilograms of cocaine, according to the latest federal indictment filed on May 16.
From 2018 to 2023, Espinosa recruited seemingly ordinary, under-the-radar workers like Zapata, as part of his alleged criminal enterprise, which used warehouses and garages all over the Windy City to hide money and drugs.
Cash and cocaine were loaded into semi-trailer trucks and on planes from the Midwest stash houses to the southern part of the U.S. and into Mexico, “including via commercial flights and using the assistance of Glenis Zapata,” the indictment alleges.
The last filing, which included the charges against Zapata, detailed eight drug trafficking operations from 2021 to 2023 and 15 cash transports between November 2019 and March 2022.
Proofreading, editing by Gift Luckson and Jane Aiso, Editor and Journalist at Neptune Prime.
