‘Ghost’ woman from Colombia takes El Chapo’s DEA most-wanted spot

16 Jan, 2016 05:42

Now that El Chapo is back behind bars, the “most-wanted” position of the US Drug Enforcement Administration is up for grabs. It has reportedly been filled by Maria Teresa Osorio De Serna, a Colombian woman wanted for money laundering and drug-trafficking.

Little is known of Osorio De Serna, whose date of birth ranges from 1950 according to the DEA in New York to 1945 according to the DEA’s New Jersey branch. In fact, so little is known of the woman that she has been described as “practically a ghost” by BBC Mundo.

There are no charges against De Serna in her native Colombia but in the US she is wanted for her connection to the infamous Medellín cartel, for whom she is thought to have laundered millions of dollars.

The cartel were made famous by drug lord Pablo Escobar, who controlled a cocaine empire from Colombia, smuggling the drug into the US until he was killed in 1993.

The DEA have little to go on in finding Osorio De Serna, whose exact involvement with the cartel is not known. Her last known address was in Hialeah, Florida, and she is known to use the aliases Maria Teresa Correa, Gloria Bedoya, and Iris Conde.

Rumors that Sean Penn has been enlisted to track her down are unsubstantiated.

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