The woman the DEA calls the “Grandma Ninja” is part of a new breed in the traditionally male-dominated drug trade: the “cocaine queenpin.”Īs if to underscore the point, just last Friday Colombian police arrested “Doctor Claudia,” a k a Gladys Alvarez, the widow of one of Colombia’s fiercest drug lords, on charges of cocaine smuggling and money laundering.Īlvarez had been on the run for 11 years, ever since anti-drug agents gunned down her husband, Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, and their son, Fredy, near a banana plantation in 1989. “Now she’s facing 20 years to life for drug smuggling.” “Her lifestyle was that of a retired grandmother,” said DEA Special Agent Brent Eaton. The 56-year-old retiree lived quietly in her modest condo in Fort Lauderdale, tending to her hibiscus garden and spoiling her infant granddaughter.īut this grandma had a dark side that would have made Little Red Riding Hood wince.ĭrug Enforcement Administration officials have charged Matthews with running a sophisticated cocaine-smuggling ring – outfitting her drug runners in ninja gear and commanding a 60-foot yacht to pick up supplies from Colombia. GAIL MATTHEWS seemed every inch the doting grandmother.
0 kommentar(er)
