Diana Espinoza Aguilar is a former beauty queen and the wife of Rafael Caro Quintero, a notorious Mexican drug lord who co-founded the Guadalajara cartel in the late 1970s.
She was involved in drug trafficking and money laundering for her husband and was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department.
She has been on the run with Caro Quintero since he was released from prison in 2013.
File
- Full Name: Diana Espinoza Aguilar
- Nickname: La Diva
- Date of birth: July 17, 1970
- Age: 53 years old
- Gender: Female
- Place of birth: Matachi, Chihuahua, Mexico
- Nationality: Mexican
- Occupation: Former Miss
- Height: 5’7″
- Parents: None
- Siblings: None
- Spouse: Rafael Caro Quintero (common wife)
- Children: No children of her own, but is stepmother to Caro Quintero’s four children from his previous marriage
- Relationship status: Married
- Net worth: $3 million
Early life and education
Now 53 years old, Diana Espinoza Aguilar was born on July 17, 1970 in Matachi, a small town in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Not much is known about her parents, siblings or childhood. She grew up in a poor rural area, where she developed a passion for beauty pageants.
She participated in several local and regional pageants and won the Miss Matachi title in 1988. She then moved to Chihuahua City where she continued to pursue her modeling career.
She also studied accounting at a technical school but still needed to complete her studies.
Personal life
Diana Espinoza Aguilar has had several romantic relationships with drug traffickers.
Her first partner was Ever Villafane Martinez, a Colombian drug lord in the Norte del Valle cartel. They met in the late 1990s and lived together in Mexico City.
They were arrested in 2008, along with several other members of their organization, and charged with drug trafficking and money laundering. Espinoza Aguilar was sentenced to seven years in prison and transferred to Puente Grande prison in Jalisco.
There, she met Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the most wanted drug lords in Mexico and the United States. Caro Quintero is serving a 40-year sentence for the kidnapping and murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985.
He was also a co-founder of the Guadalajara cartel, which dominated Mexico’s drug trade in the 1980s. He saw Espinoza Aguilar on television in 2010 when she won a beauty pageant at a women’s prison.
Her looks captivated him, and he asked a mutual friend to introduce them. They quickly fell in love and exchanged letters and phone calls. They also had conjugal visits and were married in a religious ceremony in 2012.
In 2013, Caro Quintero was released from prison due to a legal technicality, causing outrage in both Mexico and the United States.
He and Espinoza Aguilar fled the country and have been in hiding ever since. Both are wanted by the government, with a $20 million bounty on their heads.
They have no children of their own, but Espinoza Aguilar is stepmother to Caro Quintero’s four children from a previous marriage to Alejandrina Maria Salazar Hernandez, who is also a drug trafficker and aunt of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Career
Diana Espinoza Aguilar had no formal or legitimate career beyond being an official beauty queen. But she was involved in the drug business of her husband and his associates.
The US Treasury Department describes her as a key part of the Caro Quintero organization’s money-transfer operations and holding a number of assets in her name.
She also helped him escape capture and maintained contact with other members of the Guadalajara cartel and its affiliates, such as the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco New Generation cartel.
She has been sanctioned by the US government, freezing any assets she has in the US and prohibiting any transactions with her.
Net worth
Diana Espinoza Aguilar’s net worth is estimated at $3 million. She may share a portion of her husband’s fortune, with an estimated net worth of $650 million.
However, much of their money may be hidden or laundered through various businesses and properties and can be difficult to trace or access.
Argumentative
Diana Espinoza Aguilar has been involved in several controversies, mainly due to her relationship with Caro Quintero and her involvement in drug trafficking.
She was accused of being an accomplice and an enabler of her husband’s crimes and benefiting from his illegal activities.
She was also criticized for her role as a beauty queen and for using her looks and charm to seduce and manipulate drug lords.
She has been portrayed by some media and public figures as a seductress, a gold digger and a traitor.
She has also faced legal troubles, such as being arrested, convicted, and punished by the government. She has denied any wrongdoing and has defended her husband and their love.
Social media
- Instagram Name: None
- Twitter Username: None
