A 23-year-old Mexican gang queenpin identified for carving out the hearts of her victims and providing them up as sacrifices to a pagan god of dying has landed half a century in jail.
Michelle Angelica Pineda, a ok a “La Chely,” was tried within the Mexican state of Chihuahua and sentenced to 50 years behind bars Friday, the FBI mentioned in a launch.
“Pineda was identified for her excessive brutality, resembling dismembering our bodies, eradicating hearts, and putting the hearts in entrance of ‘Santa Muerte’ altars and statues,” the FBI mentioned.
Santa Muerte is a pagan deity representing dying.
The cold-hearted killer was solely 22 when the FBI and Customs and Border Safety arrested her at a motel in El Paso early final yr, in response to MENIO.
She had entered the US illegally and operated an enormous drug community alongside the border for the Artistas Asesinos, or Doble A Cartel, in response to the FBI.
The Artistas Asesinos each site visitors medicine and act as an enforcement arm for the infamous Sinaloa Cartel, in response to the US District Legal professional’s Workplace.
Arresting authorities discovered Pineda holed up with weapons, bladed weapons and a cornucopia of medication, together with fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and Xanax.
She had been needed for 5 murders in Mexico, together with a double murder towards a pair in 2023 and the slaying of a person whose mutilated physique was discovered within the streets of Juárez in 2024, MENIO reported.
The latter homicide earned her and 4 co-conspirators the 50-year sentence.
“Working hand-in-hand with our companions—whether or not in legislation enforcement, the personal sector, and with overseas legislation enforcement companies—is paramount to be able to hold individuals like Pineda from bringing violence and medicines into the US and our communities,” mentioned Jarod Brown, FBI El Paso particular agent in cost, in a press release.
