Cristel Yariela Gomez Espinoza, known by her gang name “La Reina del Sur”, was picked up at 10AM on Tuesday in Palmar Norte, Puntarenas, in the Southern Zone. She was wanted by Interpol, as well as the OIJ of Costa Rica, who had an order for capture for her since 2018. The arrest took place in a commercial center, where the OIJ and Fuerza Publica had been staking out another wanted felon, when they received an anonymous tip that Gomez Espinoza was on the premises.

The arrest of Gomez completes a series of arrests of the criminal gang run by El Gringo, Irving Alejandro Guido Toruno, Gomez’s alleged boyfriend of many years and father of her children. Gomez is 24 years old, and originally from the Puntarenas area of the Southern Zone. She is reported to have been the director of the drug dealing arm of the El Gringo organization, a group known for their cruelty and violence. The OIJ had been looking for Gomez since 2018, always concerned that her proximity to Panama might make it easy for her to disappear into that country.

Costa Rica has now detained some 56 people related to the El Gringo gang, but the capture of La Reina del Sur on Tuesday was “el anillo en el dedo”, the ring on the finger, sealing the demise of that vicious gang. El Gringo, Toruno, 34 years old at the time of his death, was a Nicaraguan leader of a drug trafficking gang responsible for at least ten murders, as well as robberies, torture, carjacking, kidnapping and drug trafficking, particularly cocaine. He was found dead in 2017, face down, with multiple cuts and wounds to his face and body. It was rumored he was killed on the orders of a rival drug gang run by the Nicaraguan drug lord “El Pollo.

”Toruño was connected with Luis Angel Martinez Fajardo, a drug dealer known as “El Pollo” who has been incarcerated since 2015 in Nicaragua. It seems that Toruño, who used to work for “El Pollo” at some point had a disagreement with him and the two parted ways, “El Gringo” took advantage of the fact that his former partner was arrested to strengthen his own operation. It is known that “El Pollo” has continued giving orders from jail. The dispute for territories is what has triggered a number of violent crimes

Gomez was sentenced in 2015 to fifteen years in Costa Rican jail for drug trafficking, but her sentence was overturned on appeal, leading to her release. She has been on the run since then, although authorities were aware that she continued in her role within the El Gringo gang, still active in drug smuggling and gun smuggling in Paso Canoas, near the Panama/Costa Rica border.
After she was detained, Gomez was flown to San Jose, where she will remain in Preventive Detention while she awaits her trial.
The title Reina del Sur was said to have been borrowed from a novel by Spanish author Arturo Perez-Reverte, who wrote of a Mexican woman who became involved in narco-trafficking and contraband with the Sinaloa gang.

Gomez was reported to be very violent, and was considered extremely dangerous by the OIJ. They detained her without incident, and she now awaits a new trial, and a hopefully tougher sentence. Her two children are aged 7 and 9 years, and are being looked after by family members.

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