Mexico’s Queen of the Pacific sues Netflix over series
A Mexican woman who served time in jail for her links to drug trafficking is suing Netflix and TV channel Telemundo. Sandra Ávila Beltrán argues that the TV series Queen of the South is based on her life, her lawyer told the Mexican newspaper Milenio. Ávila Beltrán says her story was used without her consent and is demanding that she be paid 40% of the royalties. As well as the TV series, there have been narco ballads written about her by Tigres del Norte and other bands. Ávila Beltrán, 61, was infamous in Mexico even before the Netflix series was broadcast. Known as Queen of the Pacific, her life story certainly reads like the script of a telenovela – the hugely popular Latin American soap operas with many plot twists and turns. Her uncle is Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, one of the founders of the powerful Guadalajara drug cartel. At 21, she married a policeman who allegedly became corrupt and did deals with the local drug lords. He was assassinated shortly after their son was born.(BBC)..[+]